Journalist Don Lemon has been arrested, reportedly “at the direction of United States Attorney General Pam Bondi,” for his role in accompanying and filming Minnesota residents who disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, on 25 January 2026. The protest was staged to oppose the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Demonstrators targeted the church, which belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention, because its pastor, David Easterwood, serves as the acting director of an ICE field office in St. Paul.

Earlier in the week, it was reported that a federal magistrate had refused the United States Department of Justice’s application to file criminal charges against Lemon, leaving the agency with only the option of seeking an indictment through a grand jury.

In a development that surprised many, Lemon has welcomed his arrest, apparently hoping to use the moment to settle longstanding questions about his Black identity and cultural relevance.

“Many people have long called me a Karen masquerading as a Black man—a kind of ‘White Chicks’ reversal scenario. Many others have questioned my relevance and my capacity to produce anything of the slightest value. A lot of these people aren’t even related to me.”

“My arrest and detention conclusively demonstrate the threat the Trump administration faces from my highly relevant Black power. It is the most horrific experience a man of my distinction and refinement has had to endure. To put it in perspective, for a regular person, the experience would amount to a greater ordeal than the manner in which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. As a manual labourer, he was accustomed to harsh physical conditions,” Mr Lemon noted in a statement released from prison through his attorney.