Don Lemon details arrest after covering ICE protests in Minnesota

Don Lemon, former CNN correspondent was arrested last Thursday in connection with coverage of an ICE protest in Minnesota and has detailed the incident on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

The independent journalist was covering the protests against ICE crackdowns in the state for his YouTube channel when a demonstration interrupted a church service

Lemon explained to the TV host that his attorney, Abbe Lowell, contacted the US Attorney General, Pam Bondi, offering to hand himself in. However, the team “never heard back from them.”

Lemon detailed his arrest at a Beverly Hills hotel while gearing up to cover the Grammy's and the Black Music Collective event in Los Angeles. He had just attended a Spotify party before he was swarmed by agents upon returning to his hotel.

“I got back to the hotel. I walked in, I had my swag bag from the thing, and I was walking up to the room and I pressed the elevator button and all of a sudden, I feel myself being jostled and people trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs,” Lemon explained.

“And I said, ‘What are you doing here?’ And they said, ‘We came to arrest you.’ I said, ‘Well, who are you?’ Finally, they identified themselves. I said, ‘If you are who you are then where’s the warrant?’ They didn’t have the warrant,” the journalist continued.

“So, they had to wait for someone from outside, an FBI guy to come in, to show me a warrant on a cell phone. By that time I was trying to figure out what was going on, to get my bearings.” 

“They want to embarrass you, they want to intimidate you, they want to instill fear. That’s why they did it that way,” he told Kimmel on air.

Following his release on bond on January 30, Lemon spoke outside the courthouse, pledging: “I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now. I will not stop ever.”

The President was especially vocal about Lemon’s arrest, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship. 

When life gives you lemons... ⛓️ pic.twitter.com/wxry0fudOj

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 30, 2026

Lemon’s arrest is the latest controversy amid the government's immigration crackdown in several states including Minnesota, where Renee Good, 37 and Alex Pretti, 37, were both fatally shot by federal immigration officers in separate incidents. Their deaths have largely spurred protests nation-wide against ICE presence. 

Lemon is due back in federal court in Minneapolis on February 9.  

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