St. Paul’s Democrat Mayor Makes Excuses For Church-Crashing Protesters

St. Paul Democratic Mayor Kaohly Her made excuses for the protesters who crashed a church service on Sunday, arguing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had effectively set the precedent by enforcing federal immigration law in “sacred” spaces like public schools.

Her, who was just elected mayor in November, spoke with CNN anchor Erin Burnett on Tuesday’s broadcast of “Erin Burnett Outfront,” and although she initially tried to claim that she did not support protesters disrupting Sunday worship services, she immediately pivoted to blame ICE for scaring the community to the point that they felt they didn’t have a choice.

WATCH:

NEW: St Paul’s mayor, Kaohly Her, speaks for what is believed to be the first time publicly about the Christian church that was stormed in her city, days after it happened, when asked about it on CNN. Saying ICE lead the way by going into sacred places…

“I don’t ever… pic.twitter.com/9xtmCwKqFa

— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) January 21, 2026

“I will say that ICE has led the way in their charge of going onto school properties and detaining people from places that should be just as well kept sacred,” she began. “And so we responded the exact same way we would have at any place of worship.”

Her noted that local police had arrived at the scene, but then said that she could not make additional comments because the investigation was still ongoing. She once again declared that the situation would not have been handled any differently at any other place of worship.

Burnett asked then if Her’s claim — that ICE had effectively started the tit-for-tat — meant that she thought it was acceptable for the protesters to do the same.

“I don’t ever believe that it is OK for us to cross the line in which there are spaces in which people have certain rights and freedoms,” Her said, but immediately pivoted to add, “But I will say that if this government wants us to obey rule of law that they also need to follow that as well and that they cannot expect residents who are feeling terrorized and sieged to be operating under any different circumstances or any different rules than they are operating in.”