DOJ Charges 15 Direct Action Minnesota Protesters With Conspiring To Impede ICE Enforcement

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota announced criminal charges against 15 people tied to anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, accusing them of conspiring to impede or injure federal officers during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation earlier this year.

“US Attorney for Minnesota charges 15 anti-ICE protesters, alleging ties to antifa groups Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged 15 people allegedly tied to two Minneapolis-based antifa groups”

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U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said at a Tuesday briefing that the charges reflect a “broad federal effort to address organized, lawless behavior which seeks to disrupt the execution of federal law,” and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy said the investigation found “extensive planning, material support and coordinated attacks against federal personnel and facilities.”

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The indictment centers on Direct Action Minnesota, formerly known as Twin Cities Direct Action, and prosecutors said the defendants were connected to “antifa” activity as part of a months-long investigation into protest networks.

Rosen said 12 of the 15 were arrested during raids by Homeland Security Investigations Tuesday morning, while two remained at large and one was already in custody on different federal charges.

In the same announcement, Rosen declined to provide details when reporters asked whether any federal officers were injured, saying instead that “Whether or not they actually, at the end of the day, caused bodily harm is not the measure of whether or not they committed a serious federal crime.”

At the press conference, Rosen repeatedly declined to substantiate claims about injuries to federal officers when asked, and he told reporters, “I can’t elaborate on that today, and I don’t believe I used the word attacks, but if I did, I stand by it.”

Civil liberties and defense voices challenged the framing of the case as violence, with Defending Rights and Dissent saying the indictment “attempts to treat nonviolent civil disobedience as a serious federal felony.”

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Defense attorney James Cook disputed the government’s account of alleged conduct by Natasha Rakotz, saying, “It was an accident, it’s a freaking accident,” and Cook argued the prosecution was driven by the administration’s immigration crackdown rather than violence by protesters.

Protesters and activists gathered outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul as U.S. Marshals used pepper spray and aerosol grenades after protesters tried to hold open a door, according to MPR News.

The Guardian described chaotic scenes outside the courthouse in Minneapolis on Tuesday, with prosecutors alleging the defendants “violently oppose immigration law enforcement” while protesters clashed with federal agents who deployed teargas and pepper spray.

The indictment and the public statements around it place the case in the context of President Donald Trump’s effort to elevate perceived threats of political violence from the American left by designating anti-fascist groups as “domestic terrorist organizations,” and the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder said the case comes amid that effort.

Rosen said the charges were “charged not for what they said but what they did,” and he argued the conspiracy was “not to interfere by their voice, but to do it by force,” framing the prosecution as an enforcement of federal law.

The Guardian reported that the indictment does not allege officers were injured, even as it mentions actions like kicking a federal vehicle and knocking notes from an agent’s hands, and it quoted Rosen saying, “the evidence will prove it all out.”

MPR News said the government’s track record around charges connected to the immigration crackdown has been “spotty,” citing that prosecutors dropped 18 of 36 prior cases, including three with prejudice after a Magistrate Judge David Schultz called one charging document a “false affidavit.”

PBS reported that the alleged conspiracy began in January shortly after the Trump administration launched Operation Metro Surge, and it said the crackdown brought thousands of federal agents into the Twin Cities and surrounding areas, with prosecutors accusing the defendants of coordinating efforts to block arrests and deportations.