The Democratic headliners of a letter sent just months ago that demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi “fully enforce” the FACE Act against pro-life demonstrators were silent when asked by Fox News Digital if the same emphasis should be put toward prosecuting the Minnesota church disruptors.

With Bondi now bringing FACE Act charges against the agitators disrupting a Baptist service Jan. 18, those Democrats who signed the letter may face a narrowing decision, publicly back the prosecutions under the FACE Act, break with the same attorney general they pressured in 2025, or remain silent as Republicans demand prosecutions in this aspect.

In March 2025, Democratic Reps. Sean Casten and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Jerrold Nadler of New York headlined the 75-member letter demanding that Bondi “fully enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and ensure women and health care providers are not threatened, harassed, or abused while trying to enter reproductive health care facilities.”

Fox News Digital reached out by email and phone to the offices of Casten, Schakowsky and Nadler to ask whether they would similarly agree to have the law — originally spearheaded by “liberal lion” Ted Kennedy — be used in earnest as well against left-wing agitators who disrupted a Twin Cities church service in mid-January. 

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One of the reverends at the Baptist church was reportedly connected with local Immigration and Customs Enforcemet (ICE) operations.

The three lawmakers did not respond when asked whether Bondi should similarly pursue federal FACE Act charges against the agitators or whether they had any further comment on the heckling of the minister by people like former CNN host Don Lemon.

Fox News Digital also reached out to as many of the other 72 Democrats listed as possible — including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Bonnie Watson-Coleman, D-N.J., and Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. — but received a response from only one. 

A representative for Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., acknowledged the inquiry and said they were “looking into” the matter.

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In their letter, the Democrats wrote that limiting the Department of Justice from enforcing “bipartisan law will put at risk the well-being and security of patients, providers, and others at reproductive health care facilities.”

“Individuals have the right to freedom of speech and the right to peacefully gather to protest, ” they wrote.  “However, individuals do not have the right to use physical force or intimidation as these acts pose a threat to those attempting to access a range of health care services — from abortion care to breast cancer screenings, prenatal care, reproductive counseling, and in-vitro fertilization.”

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The FACE Act has provisions for both abortion clinics and public exercise of First Amendment rights to freedom of religion.

Nonetheless, Bondi’s office has already pursued charges against alleged disruptors, including Chauntyll Louisa Allen — a St. Paul, Minnesota,school board member — and Nekima Levy Armstrong, who authorities said played a “key role” in organizing the “coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul.”

“Listen loud and clear, we do not tolerate attacks on places of worship,” Bondi tweeted after the incident. 

Fox News’ Jake Gibson and Charlie Horan contributed to this report.

The Trump administration has blamed the death of an American citizen at the hands of immigration agents in Minnesota on the victim within hours of their killing for the second time this month, calling the late Alex Jeffrey Pretti an “assassin” and “domestic terrorist” without opening an independent investigation.

The crisis response from President Trump’s top Homeland Security officials followed a familiar playbook from an administration eager to project grit and resolve, particularly on immigration, in the face of inconvenient facts. Despite their efforts, damage from the incident continued to reverberate Sunday, creating political jeopardy for the president.

Videos that emerged of Pretti’s killing enraged the public. Government lines justifying the use of lethal force prompted blowback among staunch Republican supporters and conservative groups. Negotiations in Congress to thwart another shutdown were upended over Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding. And a Trump-appointed judge blocked the administration from attempting to destroy evidence in the case, lending weight to fears of a cover-up.

It is new terrain for Trump, whose handling of immigration had been a rare bright spot in polling of his job performance throughout his first year back in office. Now, for the first time, surveys show a plurality of Americans disapprove of the administration’s enforcement tactics, with one in three Republicans expressing concern they have grown too harsh.

Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse at a hospital for veterans in Minneapolis, was shot 10 times at close range by two ICE agents. Multiple videos of the incident appear to show Pretti attempting to aid a fellow civilian who had been pushed by an ICE officer, before he himself was wrestled to the ground by agents.

He had been carrying a firearm that Minneapolis police said was lawfully purchased and registered. The videos that circulated on social media do not indicate that he had brandished, or was attempting to reach for, his weapon, despite Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accusing Pretti of attending the protest with the aim of committing violence.

Bill Essayli, the assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, warned that approaching law enforcement while armed created “a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.” But the administration’s decision to blame Pretti’s death on his decision to bear arms drew harsh rebuke from 2nd Amendment advocates across the Republican Party.

“Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens,” the National Rifle Assn. said in a statement.

Erick Erickson, a prominent conservative commentator, accused Noem and Greg Bovino, Trump’s head of the U.S. Border Patrol, of making matters “far worse by being unrestrained in how they proceed.”

“The President is a great marketer and PR guy,” Erickson wrote on X. “While those around him may not realize it, I’m pretty sure he understands another dead American with his team rushing to undermine second amendment arguments and define the dead guy with a lot of facts still unknown is a bad look.”

The general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term said he was “enraged and embarrassed” by the agency’s “lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty,” and called for the president’s impeachment and removal.

“People have had enough,” Brian O’Hara, Minneapolis’ police chief, told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “The Minneapolis Police Department went the entire year, last year, recovering about 900 guns from the street, arresting hundreds and hundreds of violent offenders, and we didn’t shoot anyone. And now this is the second American citizen that’s been killed, it’s the third shooting within three weeks.”

Earlier this month, Renee Nicole Good, also 37 and a mother of three, was shot to death by an ICE agent while driving her car, shortly after dropping her son off at school. Just as in Pretti’s case, Noem and other senior administration officials justified the incident within hours of her death by impugning the victim’s motives without producing substantive evidence.

The aggressive response comes as the administration has faced accusations of misrepresenting other facts to the public.

After the president confused Greenland with the separate island nation of Iceland four times in a speech last week in Switzerland, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, flatly denied he had made the mix-up.

And on the same trip, Trump dismissed the role of NATO’s allies in the war in Afghanistan, where partner nations lost more than 1,000 soldiers over the course of the war, falsely claiming they “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.” The remark has infuriated some of Washington’s closest allies.

Only when Noem was questioned by a conservative reporter on Fox News about the circumstances of Pretti’s death did she suggest error may have been at fault.

“This happened in seconds,” Noem said, asked whether Pretti had been shot and killed after being disarmed of a weapon he hadn’t brandished in the first place. “They clearly feared for their lives and took action to defend themselves.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., called for a full investigation after a federal agent fatally shot a man who was allegedly armed in Minneapolis on Saturday, calling the incident “incredibly disturbing.”

Cassidy joined a chorus of Democratic lawmakers raising questions following the shooting death of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex J. Pretti, who was killed by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday. Pretti allegedly confronted officers during a Department of Homeland Security operation in south Minneapolis and was carrying a gun, according to the agency.

“The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing,” Cassidy said in a post on X. “The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state investigation.”

Cassidy added that “we can trust the American people with the truth.”

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The Louisiana Republican’s comments were seemingly at odds with members of his party, including President Donald Trump, who said in a post on Truth Social following the shooting that federal agents “had to protect themselves” because of the lack of support from local police in Minneapolis.

“This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go—What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?” Trump wrote in the post. “The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves—Not an easy thing to do!”

Last week, Trump pledged his endorsement for U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow if she entered the GOP primary in Louisiana, challenging Cassidy, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2015. Letlow launched her Senate bid days later.

NOEM SAYS MINNEAPOLIS SUSPECT COMMITTED ‘DOMESTIC TERRORISM,’ ACCUSES WALZ, FREY OF INCITING VIOLENCE

Cassidy was one of the Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump after the House impeached him in 2021. The Senate vote ultimately fell short of the threshold required to convict Trump.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said during a news conference Saturday that the incident occurred while DHS officers carried out “targeted operations” in Minneapolis against an illegal immigrant with a violent criminal history.

“An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun,” Noem said, adding that agents attempted to disarm him.

“The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently,” Noem said. “Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.”

BLOCKING ICE COOPERATION FUELED MINNESOTA UNREST, OFFICIALS WARN AS VIRGINIA REVERSES COURSE

Noem said Pretti had “two magazines with ammunition in them that held dozens of rounds” and no identification, adding that “this looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”

She said DHS is investigating the shooting “just like we do all other officer-involved shootings,” adding that additional details would be forthcoming.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said during a news conference Saturday that “we need ICE out of Minnesota,” while placing blame on the Trump administration.

“I have personally warned them that there would be more deaths, that more of this would happen,” she said. “And clearly they’re not listening. So, we ask people around the country to talk to their Republican representatives to make clear that this is not the America that is ours. This has got to stop.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Klobuchar’s comments in an X post Saturday, saying federal agents should not be removed from Minnesota.

“We need dangerous criminal illegal aliens out of Minnesota. The Democrats have their priorities completely upside down. They will not keep the American people safe,” she wrote.

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In his own post, Vice President JD Vance blamed “far left agitators” for the recent unrest in Minneapolis.

“This level of engineered chaos is unique to Minneapolis,” he posted on X Saturday evening. “It is the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the White House for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.