U.S. Prosecutors Charge 15 Minnesota Anti-ICE Protesters With Conspiracy To Impede Federal Agents

U.S. prosecutors charged 15 Minnesota anti-ICE protesters with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal agent, and Daniel Rosen, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, announced the charges at a press conference Tuesday.

“Encrypted messages on Signal reveal how radical groups mobilized protesters to interfere with federal agents and then capitalized on the death to unleash national protests”

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Rosen said the actions of the 15 went beyond peaceful protest and constitutionally protected free speech, adding, "These defendants are not being charged for what they said, but what they did."

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The indictment alleges the defendants coordinated in blockading the Whipple Federal Building, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is headquartered in Minnesota, by flipping a trailer and forming human chains across roadways.

Court documents cited by the Daily Chronicle describe Signal messages in which defendants scheduled meetings, "shield" and "de-arrest" trainings and arranged to bring blockade materials to Whipple.

Sahan Journal reported that prosecutors alleged the charges specifically included efforts to block ICE agents’ movement to and from the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Jan. 23 and March 1.

Protests followed the charges, with MPR News describing U.S. marshals pepper spraying protestors outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul on Tuesday after protesters tried to hold open a door.

MPR News also quoted Rosen saying, "charged not for what they said but what they did," while he turned aside specific questions about the alleged conspiracy and said, "We’ll let the indictment stand on its own."

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Minnesota attorneys and activists condemned the arrests, and Anna Hall, a criminal defense attorney and member of the National Lawyers Guild, said the prosecutions were a "naked political attack" by President Donald Trump over resistance to his administration’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota.

Activist and civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, who told Sahan Journal she is facing federal charges for entering Cities Church during a protest in January, called the arrests "trumped up charges" and urged the crowd to support the protesters arrested Tuesday morning.

Sahan Journal reported that Emily Phillips, a member of MN50501, said she woke up to her phone "blowing up" on Tuesday morning and worried she could face arrest as well after observing ICE activity with multiple people who were indicted.

The Intercept said the indictment built its case largely on conversations from more than a dozen Signal groups, citing more than 100 specific messages, and it asked how Homeland Security Investigations gained access to the communications.

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The Intercept noted that the indictment singles out targets for alleged participation in local ICE rapid response networks that monitored and reported the presence of federal agents by flagging details such as the license plate numbers of vehicles used by immigration authorities.

Le Monde.fr framed the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good as consequences of the federal anti-immigration operation Metro Surge, writing that the tragic deaths of the two Americans, both 37 years old, were "the direct consequence of the federal anti-immigration operation Metro Surge."

Le Monde.fr also described how residents gathered at the site where Pretti was killed, and it said the images circulated across the country and contradicted the Trump administration's official version of a homegrown terrorist.

In the Daily Chronicle’s account of the indictment, prosecutors described defendants’ coordination in blockading the Whipple Federal Building and alleged actions including following a federal agent from the Whipple Building to Hudson, Wisconsin, and kicking and denting a federal vehicle.