[News] US conducted ‘mass spying campaign’ against leftwing groups and anti-ICE protesters, records reveal

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theguardian.com
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/us-government-spied-anti-ice-protesters>
US conducted ‘mass spying campaign’ against leftwing groups and anti-ICE
protesters, records reveal
Sam Levin, Rachel Leingang
10–13 minutes
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[image: image.png]

<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/us-government-spied-anti-ice-protesters#img-1>
Immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis in February 2026. Photograph:
Seth Herald/Reuters

Newly 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 <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/new-york> City, infiltrated
Signal chats and obtained financial records of mainstream unions and
left-leaning non-profit groups.

Nearly 30 internal law enforcement reports were released on Thursday as
part of a criminal case the Department of Justice has filed against 15
Minneapolis protesters
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/16/minnesota-immigration-enforcement-conspiracy-charges>
. The defendants are accused of a “conspiracy” to “impede” US immigration
officers during the Trump administration’s surge in the region.
[image: Crowds carrying US flags and signs reading: ‘ICE out of Minnesota’
and ‘Stop ICE terror now’]
Protesters marching during a Nationwide Shutdown demonstration against ICE
enforcement in Minneapolis on 30 January. Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty
Images

The DHS investigative reports were disclosed by the government and
submitted to the court by an attorney for one of the defendants. The
records show that in January, DHS launched an inquiry called “Operation
Puppet Master” to identify a “network of conspirators” organizing against
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The operation came as
community organizing against ICE was swelling in the region in response to
the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

A DHS report from February said the agency was looking into people who were
“providing material support to violent opportunists and agitators”. The
records suggest agents launched elaborate spying efforts targeting
activists, protesters and mainstream progressive organizations opposing the
Trump administration’s immigration policies.

“I was shocked at the scope and the apparent lack of investigative
discipline involved, but not totally surprised,” said Kevin Riach, an
attorney for one of the indicted protesters, who filed the tranche of
records in federal court.

A DHS spokesperson said that Homeland Security Investigations, its branch
that carried out the investigations, “does not comment on the existence or
status of specific on-going investigations, nor on investigative methods”.
The agency referred questions to the justice department in Minnesota, which
declined to comment.
[image: A memorial to Alex Pretti, with candles and a picture, with a light
covering of snow]
A memorial to Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Pretti was shot and killed by
federal officers while recording them in January. Photograph: Bridget
Bennett/The Guardian

The records indicate that the investigations followed the directive of
Trump’s executive order last year that designated “antifa” a “domestic
terrorist organization” responsible for “riots” against ICE. The
investigations led to the criminal case filed in June against 15
protesters, which focused on Direct Action Minnesota, a loose coalition of
organizers that the government says was part of a “conspiracy” opposing
ICE’s surge in the region.

The documents show that the government alleged major groups were connected
to the criminal conspiracy, including the national labor unions AFL-CIO and
Service Employees International Union; the local unions Minneapolis
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/minneapolis> Federation of Educators
and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees; and several large
left-leaning groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ).

None of those organizations have been charged with any crimes.

The records have added fuel to the concerns of civil rights groups
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/19/fbi-terrorism-investigations-anti-ice-activity>,
who have argued that the federal government was criminalizing lawful
protest activity under the guise of targeting leftwing “terrorism”.
[image: A man dressed up in a pickle suit shouts into a megaphone]
A man dressed up as a pickle shouts at counter-protesters through a
megaphone during a protest against a new ICE detention center in the small
town of Appleton, Minnesota, in August. Photograph: Tim Evans/Reuters

The documents show that DHS investigators obtained financial records of
unions and non-profits, as part of an inquiry into “domestic terrorist
financing”. One investigative record showed the DHS used administrative
subpoenas to obtain “wire transfers from various financial institutions to
and from” SEIU, one of the largest unions in the US. Investigators also
requested that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provide financial data
from the Communications Workers of America, an international union, the
records showed.

The DHS further obtained financial records related to the Sunrise Movement,
a national non-profit focused on the climate crisis.
[image: Federal agents hold a person down in the snow]
Federal agents hold a person down, two weeks after the fatal ICE shooting
of Renee Nicole Good on 7 January during an immigration raid. Photograph:
Leah Millis/Reuters

The records also provided detailed documentation of spying operations
conducted by undercover agents who posed as activists and surveilled
community activities.

One DHS report documented “undercover agent activity” on 31 January at a
Sunrise Movement “resistance skills training” at the Minneapolis public
library. An agent described activists discussing recruitment and
“de-escalation” at protests, with speakers suggesting having a “police
liaison” and “safety marshal” at events. The report said: “It was clear
that the Sunrise Movement organization focused on ‘peaceful’ protests.”

The undercover agent actively engaged participants, according to the
report. At one point, the agent told someone in attendance that he “works
in construction and could build items that might assist other groups with
more ‘direct-action’ protests”. That agent told the individual that “going
to jail did not bother him” and gave out his phone number.
[image: A protester kneels in front of state troopers during a protest]
A protester kneels in front of state troopers outside the Bishop Henry
Whipple Federal Building during a protest opposing ICE operations in
Minneapolis in March. Photograph: Kerem Yücel/AFP/Getty Images

The records documented the operations of another undercover agent who
joined Signal groups of activists involved in protests.

The records also showed undercover agents surveilling a virtual meeting at
Hunter College in New York focused on “ICE brutality” and “responding to
state violence”; a meeting at a labor center in Minneapolis during which
activists discussed a wide range of political issues; a meeting in a
Minneapolis public park about protest tactics; and a Direct Action
Minnesota meeting at a church.

The documents indicate that agents made audio recordings of the events.

One undercover agent attended a “training” event at a gymnasium in a church
and participated in “boxing/sparring practice”, according to a DHS report.
The report noted that the agent was surreptitiously recording audio of the
event, but that at one point the recorder “erroneously fell to the floor”
and the agent had to return to the gym to retrieve the device.
[image: Ford Jr speaking into a microphone from behind a plinth]
Rev Edward Ford Jr, from Shiloh Christian church in Middletown, speaks at a
protest demanding justice for Renee Nicole Good. Photograph: Connecticut
Post/Hearst Newspapers/CT Post/Getty Images

At one anti-ICE event at a church, agents documented the license plate
information of attenders, the records showed. When two agents were
approached by a man who “asked if they were ICE”, the agent responded,
falsely, that they were not.

Riach, the defense attorney, filed the records as part of a motion urging
the court to compel the government to release additional records. In his
filing, Riach accused the government of presenting “wild conspiracy
allegations … born from the fantasies of political retribution that animate
the Trump Administration”.

He also alleged that DHS’s investigations were part of a “mass spying
campaign” and said undercover agents “participated in organizing and
directing the groups they were surveilling, at times working to entice
people into discussing or committing crimes”.

The records relate to activities that extend far beyond the allegations of
the 15 defendants facing prosecution. That case alleges a vast conspiracy
to organize against ICE, but across a 94-page indictment, there are no
allegations of injuries to specific ICE officers caused by any defendants
and no charges of serious violence.

Emilia Gonzalez Avalos is the executive director of Unidos MN, a
Minneapolis social justice non-profit group, whose activities were
mentioned in the files.

“I believe that this is a clear attempt to intimidate us, to punish and
politically repress disagreement and difference,” she said. “And that is
not the America that we have built through hundreds of years. And it’s
definitely not the America that we are organizing for.”
[image: A detained woman sits inside a vehicle surrounded by federal agents]
A detained woman sits inside a vehicle surrounded by federal agents in
January, two weeks after the shooting of Renee Nicole Good. Photograph:
Leah Millis/Reuters

During trainings, organizers asked people not to record the sessions,
Gonzalez Avalos said. But organizers would also say if there were any
immigration agents or officers in the room, they were welcome to stay
because the group had nothing to hide, because their work was “entirely
grounded in the United States constitution”.

Mike German, a former FBI agent and civil liberties advocate
<https://www.brennancenter.org/events/disrupt-discredit-and-divide-how-new-fbi-damages-democracy>,
said it was striking that the DHS was leading the investigations when
typically the FBI would spearhead operations targeting potential
“terrorist” activity. He said it was also notable that the DHS was using
administrative subpoenas, which don’t require judicial authorization, to
obtain records.

The government, German said, also appeared to be relying on theories of
“guilt by association” to justify surveillance instead of narrower
investigations focused on specific alleged criminal activity. German, who
previously served as an undercover agent, further scoffed at the notion of
undercover agents spying on what appeared to be accessible, community
events.
[image: ‘ICE out’ sign in the window of a home]
An ‘ICE out’ sign in the window of a home in Minneapolis. Photograph:
UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

“You’re talking about meetings that are open to the public, where they are
recruiting among the public, saying: ‘Please come to this protest,’” he
said. “It’s hardly a challenge to ‘infiltrate’ this kind of meeting, and
that should be a clue this isn’t a criminal group. It’s very rare for
criminals to [publicize] discussion of their criminal activities.”

The investigations, he added, fit patterns in US history of the government
targeting leftwing activist and labor organizing. After 9/11, he said,
those powers to spy on communities were greatly expanded.

“Nobody should be surprised that the government would use these authorities
to target political opposition rather than target criminals, particularly
so under this administration,” he said.
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