By Denise Roy
This past May, we at University Baptist Church in Minneapolis (UBC) were preparing to say goodbye to our beloved 25-year pastor, Doug Donley, who was retiring at the end of May. We were putting together our annual meeting materials and enjoying the last weeks of choir and bells for the program year. We were not aware that federal agents were at the same time infiltrating our church building and surveilling our people and property. Of that we were ignorant, but not blissfully so.
We were already too familiar with the hardships and fear that Operation Metro Surge had wrought. We had posted signs around the church designating private areas off limits to ICE agents and trained ushers and staff on what to do should ICE agents attempt to enter the church building. We had seen beloved Nicaraguan friends deported when the Trump administration abruptly ended the humanitarian parole program for Nicaragua (and Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela). We were missing community members who were afraid to leave their homes for fear they would be nabbed by ICE. We were doing our best to support them and the many more community members around the Twin Cities sheltering in their homes, afraid to take the real risk of going to work, school, church, and the grocery store. We had seen that people with black and brown skin were being snatched up for no other reason than the color of their skin, even at stop lights as they drove down the streets. They disappeared without notice to their loved ones or access to attorneys. Renee Good and Alex Pretti had already been killed by ICE agents.
Then on August 13, we learned that an undercover ICE agent had infiltrated a class in UBC’s gym in May, surveilling and recording attendees with a concealed microphone for about two hours. The agent sparred with participants and interviewed them about how they got involved in the group. The infiltration was part of an investigation into one of “the Minnesota 15,” anti-ICE protestors charged with “conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers” and other federal crimes. UBC learned about the surveillance from Minnesota 15 defense filings.
Agency reports revealed that ICE agents also surveilled the church on Sunday, April 12, Sunday, April 19, and Thursday, June 11. During these operations, agents spent hours outside the church, noting when individuals entered and exited the building and parking lot. They ran registration checks on the individuals’ license plates, including of cars parked in a library parking lot located within 100 feet of the church’s main entrance. Agents also took video and photos of the church building and surrounding areas, including a video of nine individuals departing from the church.
These actions violated a February 2026 federal court injunction that barred civil immigration enforcement actions or infiltration at member properties of the Alliance of Baptists and American Baptist Churches, USA. Specifically, it barred DHS and other agencies from conducting warrantless immigration enforcement actions, arrests, investigations, or surveillance at and around covered churches and religious properties. UBC was specifically designated as a protected location on every list provided to DHS. The suit underlying the injunction challenged the government’s rescission of longstanding protections for sensitive locations such as houses of worship and argued that the rescission unlawfully infringed upon religious freedom and sacred spaces.
When the injunction was granted in February, UBC promptly posted notices saying its grounds were protected by the federal injunction, as well as a sign saying federal agents were not allowed on the premises. Obviously, the injunction and notices did not prevent the DHS infiltrations and surveillance.
The attorneys representing the Alliance and ABC-USA promptly filed a motion protesting the DHS actions at UBC. The motion included a statement by former UBC President Jean Lubke, “This is a complete violation of our sacred space. The Church is meant to be a place of sanctuary and safety—not infiltration by government agents.” The court issued an order to show cause why DHS should not be held in contempt for violating the preliminary injunction. We are awaiting the court’s decision.
When we at UBC learned that federal agents had infiltrated our church building and surveilled our people and property, we felt shocked, betrayed, exposed, disgusted, disappointed, sickened, angry, and scared, but we were not surprised. As one member put it, “It was just more confirmation of what we already knew about this lawless administration and their view of Minnesota as a conquered territory.”
Several UBC members shared with me their reactions to the government’s incursion. One church leader worked with members of color to devise a plan should ICE threaten to take persons of color from the church. She would hide them in the old pipe chambers.
A member said:
I have always worried a lot about the kids and staff at the school that rented from us, and this was a great example of scary people being on the premises when school may well have been in session. … That made me so, so angry. But it wasn't just the school—it was all our renters I worried about. Most of our renters are the next generation in our country, and I want them to be unafraid and free to pursue whatever their activities and learning may be when they are in UBC space.
Another member added that she felt gratitude:
I felt grateful for our church—our pastor, our staff, our governance, our membership, and our building on its corner near the university, that was actually providing space to people that were peacefully, thoughtfully, strategically standing up to the authoritarian and violent administration whose tentacles were reaching into our city. Disgusted and mad and scared as I was, I was proud to be part of UBC. Grateful that although I felt isolation from mainstream nationalist Christianity that we had each other. We were doing the right things even when it was difficult.
Yet another member observed, “As shocking as it is to hear that the federal government has been conducting illegal investigations right in our own back yard, it’s also an opportunity for us, as Christians, to carry out the words of Christ—words we believe in; words that remind us that we are called to love our immigrant brothers and sisters.”
Another said she “felt fired up and ready to go, as the saying goes. I was grateful that the group surveilled—a small organization of marginalized people—would be protected by the force of a congregation unafraid to take big swings. It's an opportunity to do right by those who trust us, and everyone who has the power to fight should consider it their privilege to do so.”
No, we weren’t surprised, but nor did we retreat. Instead, we gathered together as reflected on the message board outside our building: "Committed to Our Community...Even Under Surveillance.”
Denise Roy has been nurtured by the UBC community since she was three years old. She is grateful to be UBC's THRIVE lay representative, as well as treasurer and choir member. Denise is a retired tax law professor who loves playing with spreadsheets.
