Minneapolis, Minnesota - The US attorney general announced Thursday the arrest of three people for allegedly disturbing a church service while protesting the massive immigration crackdown in Minnesota, as Vice President JD Vance blamed local leaders for the disorder.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen, and William Kelly were arrested in connection with a Sunday protest at Cities Church in the state capital St. Paul, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X.

St. Paul and the neighboring metropolis of Minneapolis have been the epicenter of a major deployment of federal agents by the Trump administration in the Democratic-led northern US state.

Tensions have flared in the state over a wave of arrests and the killing of protester Renee Good (37) by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.

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Vance, who has aggressively defended the officer who shot Good in her car on January 7, was in Minnesota on Thursday and blamed local Democratic leaders for the chaotic rollout of ICE raids in the state.

"Yes, protest. Protest me. Protest our immigration policy, but do it peacefully. If you assault a law enforcement officer, the Trump administration and the Department of Justice is going to prosecute you," Vance said, flanked by ICE officers and vehicles.

He attacked elected local leaders, both political and policing, in Minneapolis, which is a sanctuary city. This means that police do not cooperate with federal immigration sweeps. Vance claimed these leaders were hindering ICE efforts, however.

"The lack of cooperation between state and local officials makes it harder for us to do our job and turns up the temperature," Vance said.

Trump made cracking down on undocumented migrants the centerpiece of his campaign for reelection and has overseen a rapid expansion of ICE's ranks and immigration sweeps, with Maine in the northeast singled out this week for intensified enforcement.

Department of Homeland Security and FBI "agents executed an arrest in Minnesota," US Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X.

"So far, we have arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, who allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church," Bondi said. "Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP."

She later wrote that officers had also arrested Allen and Kelly for the action where an immigration official was apparently leading a service, according to US media, writing, "WE WILL PROTECT OUR HOUSES OF WORSHIP."

FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that Armstrong had been arrested under the FACE Act, a law intended to protect those seeking to access abortion clinics and places of worship.