DHS records show extensive surveillance of anti-ICE protesters and left-leaning groups in Minnesota

DHS sent undercover agents to meetings, infiltrated chats and obtained financial records in vast operation into groups opposing Trump’s immigration crackdownNewly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year.Internal investigative reports show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent undercover agents to community meetings in the Twin Cities and New York, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained financial records of mainstream unions and left-leaning nonprofit groups. Continue reading...

The Trump administration responded to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s killing of nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January by opening up investigations into left-leaning groups days later. The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security opened probes into labor unions, a climate change organization, socialist groups, and other organizations to find out if they had aided protesters, whom the government called “violent opportunists and agitators,” against the administration’s crackdown in Minnesota. According to government documents, these investigations were invasive, gathering information on individuals and groups who have never been suspected of committing crimes. For example, over three years of financial records were subpoenaed from the Sunrise Movement, a climate activism group, and the Communications Workers of America, the labor union that represents the staff at The New Republic.The government also sought three years’ worth of wire transfers from the Service Employees International Union, the U.S.’s biggest health care union, saying they were inquiring about “domestic terrorist financing.” Those time periods predate the 2025 launch of the government’s “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota.In addition, government agents began extensively spying on protesters and organizers at libraries, parks, churches, and online meetings, recording license plate numbers as well as names and proceedings. They also infiltrated Signal group chats, attempting to learn about protests and their targets’ political opinions. All of this suggests some kind of ulterior motive on the part of the Trump administration. The DHS investigations seem to imply that the government was trying to find or manufacture criminal activity based on dissenting political speech. Federal prosecutors even went so far as to show a grand jury a PowerPoint slide alleging a conspiracy to obstruct immigration agents by 18 groups, including the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation.While none of the groups targeted by the inquiry have faced criminal charges, the government in June charged 15 people with interfering with immigration agents. The government claims the defendants are part of the left-wing antifascist movement, or antifa. Instead of going after the crimes committed by its own agents, the Trump regime wants to charge the people who protest those crimes.