It Seems White House Used AI to Edit Photo of ICE Protesters’ Arrest
The White House on Thursday appeared to share a doctored photo after arresting two people it says were involved in an anti-ICE protest during services at a Minnesota church Sunday. The White House photo alongside the announcement made it seem as if one of the targets was crying, while an original photo shows otherwise.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and Minneapolis activist, had been arrested along with fellow protester Chauntyll Louisa Allen, a member of the Saint Paul Public Schools Board of Education.
“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” Bondi posted.
After the announcement, the White House shared the following photo of Levy Armstrong:
But as Lawfare’s Anna Bower highlighted, an initial photo shared by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—that otherwise looks exactly the same—doesn’t show Levy Armstrong crying.
The arrest came after protesters on Sunday entered Cities Church in St. Paul, where David Easterwood, who leads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in St. Paul, also serves as a pastor. Demonstrators disrupted the service, chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good.”
The disruption quickly went viral among the MAGAverse and the Trump administration promised to bring forth charges, despite turning a blind eye to ICE and Border Patrol violence against Christian clergy in earlier incidents. Vice President JD Vance earlier on Thursday accused the St. Paul protesters of scaring “little kids.”
“Those people are going to be sent to prison so long as we have the power to do so. We’re going to do everything we can to enforce the law,” Vance said while on a visit to Toledo, Ohio, and plans to visit Minnesota later in the day.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in an X post that Allen was charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a law designed to stop people from intimidating or interfering with anyone trying to take part in a service at a religious center or get assistance at a clinic for reproductive health.
On Tuesday, Levy Armstrong called for Easterwood to resign.
“You cannot lead a congregation while directing an agency whose actions have cost lives and inflicted fear in our communities,” Levy Armstrong said. “When officials protect armed agents, repeatedly refuse meaningful investigation into killings like Renée Good’s, and signal they may pursue peaceful protesters and journalists, that is not justice — it is intimidation.”
This story has been updated.
