Federal prosecutors have charged 15 Minnesota activists for their participation in the struggle against ICE’s violent occupation of the Twin Cities. The invasion, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” directly killed two people, kidnapped thousands, assaulted thousands more, and according to Human Rights Watch “caused a human rights crisis” in Minnesota. 

These arrests represent an attack on our entire movement, intended to stamp out the empowerment that was hard-fought and earned by the hundreds of thousands of people who resisted ICE terror. And crucially, the Trump administration is looking to reignite fear, silencing the lessons from our struggle.

Trump’s Campaign Of Fear

The doctrine used to make these arrests is Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7)—a sweeping policy decree targeting political “radicalism” domestically, akin to and building on the Patriot Act. As we described at the time of NSPM-7’s arrival: 

“The list of ‘indicators’ of radicalism is extensive and intentionally open to very flexible interpretation. In reality, NSPM-7 directs the Justice Department, the FBI, and other national security agencies and departments to target individuals and organizations which show signs of a variety of beliefs held by very large sections of society, such as being against ‘traditional’ views on the family (read: against homophobia, against sexist gender roles) or being anti-capitalist. Unlike other national security memos, NSPM-7 was made public, which shows how much igniting fear is essential to carrying out this agenda.”

The Trump regime’s campaign to criminalize protest has set its sights on a number of cases across the country, including the Broadview six who were accused of blocking an ICE vehicle in Chicago, Stop Cop City activists in Atlanta, and pro-Palestine activists in many places. But this offensive against the movement in the Twin Cities carries particular significance, since it’s here that Trump received his biggest bloody nose yet by the working class.

In the press conference announcing the charges and arrests, US Attorney Daniel Rosen had a message to Minnesotans who participated in the anti-ICE struggle, and by extension to anti-ICE activists everywhere: “You ought to go on the assumption that we are watching you and we will get you.” The federal indictment itself is a 94-page-long document largely detailing Signal chats and conversations from activist meetings this January through May. 

It serves as a chilling demonstration that Signal, approached so often as the most secure way to communicate without being observed directly by the federal government, is simply not a shortcut around state repression. And by reading the indictment, it’s quite clear that informants, and generally an extreme level of surveillance, were essential to this rotten case. The Trump regime intends for fear and suspicion to take hold of and destroy organizations that still serve essential roles in the struggle, as well as the confidence of those who want to continue fighting. What keeps us safe is not a reliance on encrypted apps, but the power of a mass movement and the politics it takes to build and sustain it.

We Need A Massive Defense Campaign For The Minnesota 15

The Minnesota 15 are accused of activities intended to impede ICE’s ability to carry out their abductions. The reality is that this was the driving motivation of the entire struggle against Operation Metro Surge: to stop ICE’s repeated violence and repression. In fact, to make this demand crystal clear, 350,000 people collectively shut down the Twin Cities with a political general strike on January 23. This historic action showed a powerful glimpse of the potential of the working class to stop the flow of profits and push back Trump through strike action. The fightback against ICE achieved its highest level yet in the Twin Cities, which is exactly why the regime intends to knock it back.

Organized labor action played a decisive role in the retreat of Operation Metro Surge, so it’s no coincidence that union activists are disproportionately among those arrested. Labor Notes has collected some of the key statements from unions, noting that “the indictment cited some of the individuals’ participation in assemblies of trade unionists and other workers held at the United Labor Center in Minneapolis as evidence that the activists participated in a criminal conspiracy.” Socialist Alternative helped to organize some of these meetings.

Donate to the legal defense fund for the Minnesota 15 !!

It was the pressure of our movement that forced establishment Democrats like Tim Waltz and Jacob Frey (the governor of Minnesota and the mayor of Minneapolis, respectively) to nominally support the call for ICE out of Minnesota. Now these figures are quietly assessing what the movement will force them to do at this moment,  actively saying nothing at all as of five days following the indictment. This speaks volumes about the role of the Democrats, and about who we can actually rely on to fight against the repression of the Trump regime: a mass movement of working people.

Just as a mass movement and collective strike action forced the Trump regime to end Operation Metro Surge, mass action is urgently needed to defeat this attack on our movement. We need a coordinated mass public defense campaign for the Minnesota 15—bringing together unions, immigrants rights organizations, rapid response networks, student groups, socialist/left organizations, and more—to organize exactly this kind of action, to pass union resolutions in support, and to call nationally for solidarity protests. As a first step, the unions who called the January 23 general strike, as well as those whose members have been indicted, should urgently call a mass demonstration to defend their members and the whole Minnesota 15. Out of this, we need mass democratic meetings to discuss next steps bringing together activists, union members, and the immigrant community.

New Phase Of The Anti-ICE Struggle

The Trump administration is fighting to define the anti-ICE movement as violent extremism, to make an example of those arrested and to scare everyone else into backing away quietly. The more they can build a narrative that they rounded up “the violent ones,” the more our struggle is divided and the lessons are scratched away. This attack on our movement is a living demonstration that sections of the ruling class will always attempt to claw back our victories and smash the confidence of precisely those who have the potential to threaten their repressive power. If they’re allowed to carry out this retribution without significant fightback, it’ll embolden the regime to go further.

The fight against ICE is far from over. Raids continue across the country, even if at reduced levels, including in major urban areas. Congress just authorized $70 billion to fund Trump’s private army through 2029. Sixty thousand people languish in horrible detention centers leading to hunger and work strikes like the one that has been going on for weeks in Delaney Hall in New Jersey.

Even after Tom Homan’s announcement of the conclusion of Operation Metro Surge, ICE operations did not fully wrap up in Minnesota. Their abductions have continued, with hundreds of agents in the Twin Cities. But there’s no doubt that our struggle forced them to collapse their full-scale terror occupation. They’ve not attempted a military-style invasion of a US city since. The grassroots movement in the Twin Cities built sustained community action and solidarity against ICE abductions, which brought our struggle the strength and scope to carry out the decisive blow of January 23’s historic strike action of 350,000 workers in the Twin Cities. 

Cameron Kennedy, one of the arrested activists, had this to say about this attempt to criminalize protest: “They managed to kick-start the movement again. We won’t be intimidated.” When ICE agents were occupying our neighborhoods, we were gripped with fear for the safety of our families and our neighbors. That fear was paired with outrage, which became more and more powerful the more we worked collectively to fight back. Even while navigating the aftermath and impact of Operation Metro Surge, working people in the Twin Cities have not forgotten what we’re capable of. Now, our movement needs to respond to these attacks and lead the way on building a sustained, organized, and open mass movement against ICE terror, the Trump regime’s repression, and the entire capitalist system which allows both of these forces to come to power and occupy our neighborhoods.

Socialist Alternative calls for: 

A mass public defense campaign to be launched by labor unions, rapid response networks, immigrant rights groups, student groups, and socialist organizations—starting with a mass protest.

Drop the charges on the Minnesota 15: resistance to ICE is not a crime! 

ICE OUT: Complete withdrawal of all ICE operations and movement surveillance in the Twin Cities. 

Put ICE on Trial: Arrest the killer agents who murdered Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and assaulted thousands of our neighbors.

Abolish ICE and redistribute their massive, multibillion-dollar budget toward funding public schools, expanding programs like SNAP, and building high-quality affordable housing.