Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 20 January 2026

These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters.

Can anti-ICE protesters who disrupted church service be charged?

On January 18, 2026, about three dozen anti-ICE protesters entered Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, interrupting a Sunday worship service to protest local and federal immigration enforcement and to call out what they said was one of the church’s pastors  alleging that he also served as the acting director of the local ICE field office and was connected to aggressive enforcement operations, including the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent. The disruption included loud chants and confrontations that forced the service to end early. 

Reactions were sharply divided, with some congregants and conservative Christian leaders condemning the action as a violation of sacred worship space, while other religious figures and activists defended the protest as an expression of conscience. The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into whether the protesters’ actions violated federal law (including the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) and indicated potential charges, but legal experts note First Amendment protections make prosecution legally complex. 

Analyst Comments: From a security and safety perspective, this incident underscores that houses of worship can be affected by spontaneous, issue-driven disruptions even when they are not the primary target of hostility. Protests entering indoor worship spaces introduce risks related to crowd control, emotional escalation, and the potential for misunderstandings or physical confrontations between protesters and congregants. While the event remained non-violent, the sudden interruption highlights how quickly routine services can be disrupted and how challenging it can be for staff or volunteers to respond in real time.

Additionally, the situation illustrates the importance of clear procedures for handling disruptions that fall outside traditional crime or threat models. Faith organizations may benefit from reviewing de-escalation practices, identifying who has authority to address intrusions, and ensuring coordination with local authorities when services are interrupted. It is also important to establish who holds final decision-making authority to pause or end a service early, so that responses are timely, consistent, and not made ad hoc under stress. Clearly defining this role in advance can reduce confusion, limit escalation, and help staff and volunteers act with confidence during unexpected disruptions. Even when incidents are rooted in broader social issues rather than direct hostility toward a faith community, they remain an ever-present, low-level risk that can impact safety, continuity of services, and the sense of security among congregants.

The Gate 15 Interview EP 66: Chris Camacho: Cyber Risk, Building Communities, Nirvana, and Peruvian Chicken

The Gate 15 Interview is a monthly interview between Gate 15’s Founder and Managing Director, Andy Jabbour and guests from throughout the homeland security risk management community addressing a wide range of all-hazards topics and issues.

In this month’s Gate 15 Interview Andy Jabbour speaks with Chris Camacho Abstract Security’s Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. Andy and Chris discuss:

• Chris’s background and the road from financial services to becoming a vendor.
• Chris shares some threat perspective from deepfakes to the complexities of geopolitics and polarization.
• Chris talks about managing ever-increasing amounts of data and how Abstract Security is helping organizations to reduce risk.
• We discuss the idea of AI SOCs helping to enhance security operations.
• The importance of community building: from trust groups and ISACs to C2 Corner to in-person meet-ups!
• Chris shares some career advice

Information on other Gate 15 podcasts can be found at Podcasts (gate15.global).

Building an Intelligence Team for Your House of Worship

When: February 4, 2026, 12:00 PM ET. 

Register here.

The Mission and Purpose of an Intelligence Team and Program session will pose the questions:

• What is the local threat to my house of worship?
• Which threat actors/adversaries might support/plan/carry out a malicious operation in your area?

During this session we’ll discuss how broad context information (including global information) can help assess threats locally in our own houses of worship. Specifically, panelists will focus on helping houses of worship determine:

• What information they need.
• Where to find the information.
• How to process the information in a meaningful/useful/actionable way.

Throughout the first half of 2026, FB-ISAO will host a six-session discussion series on how faith-based organizations can build and operate their own intelligence group. Join us each month to discuss:

• (Recording available in FB-ISAO Slack) January 7, 2026: The nature of intelligence as it relates to HOW decision making and security practices. What do we mean by intelligence and why do we need it?
• February 4, 2026: The mission and purpose of a HOW-centric intelligence team.
• March 4, 2026: The roles and skill sets needed to be effective, whether you have a team or an army of one, and the organizational structure and workflow.
• April 1, 2026: The sources and methods of local intelligence collection and analysis.
• May 6, 2026: Expanding your horizon to consider additional atypical threats, man-made and natural disasters, to prepare for all-hazards.
•  June 3, 2026: Operationalizing your intelligence team.