A church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is going viral for the wrong reasons after footage emerged showing churchgoers being instructed on how to handle a potential U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid as a “legal observer.”
The 30-second clip begins with one man dressed as an ICE agent walking toward another man and beginning to escort him away. Someone then yells, “Get your cameras out,” and whistles begin blowing shortly thereafter. The crowd starts chanting “ICE OUT” as they hold up their phones.
X users identified the church as St. Paul’s United Methodist Church. No one affiliated with the church had commented on the incident as of publication.
Netizens soon demanded that the government revoke the church’s tax-exempt status, while others called for the church to be shut down entirely. Social media users were divided over whether the church’s instructions crossed a legal line.
You can’t make this up.
This church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa did a legal observer training and had a fake ICE detainment simulation.
They instructed people to take out their phones and start recording and ask for warrants.
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/TImwf31dS1
— AmericanPapaBear™ (@AmericaPapaBear) February 1, 2026
The original X post of the video had more than 1 million views at publication, while a Libs of TikTok post about the situation had more than 150,000 views.
The video comes as heated anti-ICE protests persist nationwide, even amid a brutal winter and repeated snowstorms. Activists braved the weather to participate in a National Shutdown Day last Friday, a movement designed to boycott the government by refusing to work, spend money, or attend school, among other daily routines, and instead protest.
Minnesota — specifically Minneapolis and St. Paul — remains a hotbed of protests. Federal officials fatally shot two citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, in January. The Department of Homeland Security has argued that Good, who was shot in her car, intended to strike an ICE agent with her vehicle and commit an act of domestic terrorism. Video footage shows Good putting her car into drive while one agent stood directly in front of the vehicle, and another had his arm inside the driver’s side.
Absolutely! if it’s a church, they need to be there worshiping if they are training rioters, they need to be shut down their tax exempt status removed and charged felony conspiracy for every single person there.
— Cpt. Author, REMC (@stifflerriffs) February 2, 2026
Pretti, an ICU nurse, was shot Jan. 24 during a struggle with Border Patrol agents. The two federal officers who shot Pretti have since been placed on leave. Although media outlets have named the officers, this outlet is withholding their identities for privacy reasons; neither DHS nor Customs and Border Protection had confirmed the officers’ identities as of Monday morning.
There appears to be no end in sight for the protests, which have become a daily occurrence since Operation Metro Surge began in Minnesota in December. Students at a Georgia high school were nearly run over by cars during a recent anti-ICE protest. Other schools across the country have allowed students to participate in walkouts, and at least two Colorado schools canceled classes last Friday after staffing shortages on National Shutdown Day.
St. Paul United Methodist Church was originally founded in 1840, though the current building was constructed in 1914. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
