• Former CNN anchor Don Lemon arrested during Grammy coverage.
• Arrest linked to anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
• Lemon's attorney calls the arrest an "unprecedented attack on the First Amendment."
• The protest targeted a church where an ICE official serves as pastor.
• Federal authorities have faced criticism over the handling of the protests and subsequent arrests.

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles while covering the Grammy Awards, according to his attorney Abbe Lowell. This arrest is in connection with a January 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where demonstrators disrupted a church service to protest against U.S. immigration enforcement led by President Donald Trump. Multiple sources indicate Lemon was livestreaming the demonstration, emphasizing his role as a journalist during the event, according to CBS News, Reuters, and Al Jazeera.

Lemon's lawyer stated that the arrest represents an "unprecedented attack on the First Amendment," as it seems to target Lemon's journalistic activities. He has pledged that Lemon will fight these charges "vigorously and thoroughly" in court. During the protest, demonstrators interrupted services chanting against ICE, stating that one of the church’s pastors also worked for the agency, as reported by ABC News, BBC, and NPR.

The Justice Department has faced backlash for swiftly pursuing charges against Lemon and others involved in the protest while previous inquiries related to alleged wrongful deaths by ICE agents were disregarded. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that Lemon was arrested along with other individuals in what she characterized as a "coordinated attack" on the church, highlighting tensions between the Trump administration and protest actions, according to South China Morning Post and Los Angeles Times.

As protests and legal battles continue, press freedom advocates have condemned the arrests, warning they could set a dangerous precedent for journalism in the U.S. The National Press Club expressed concerns that such actions threaten the essential reporting code, making journalists wary in their coverage of public events, as evidenced by statements from press organizations described by India Times and Al Jazeera.