New in The Appeal: Trump’s Crackdown on Dissent Comes for Minnesota Anti-ICE Organizers
One person is accused of attending an anti-ICE rally where other people wore “‘Antifa’ branded" sweatshirts.
Photo credit: Chad Davis, via Wikimedia Commons. ICE and Border Patrol agents on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged 15 Minnesota residents with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer after they participated in protests against ICE’s mass deportation campaign in the Twin Cities.
The indictment, which was unsealed last week, is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to criminalize its opponents.The case tests how far prosecutors can go to manufacture a criminal conspiracy based on group chats, social media posts, discussions of protest tactics, and anti-surveillance precautions.
In the indictment, the DOJ appears to argue that involvement in rapid-response networks is illegal because they “identify and harass” federal agents to prevent them from “performing their official duties.” Rapid-response networks alert community members to ICE’s presence so volunteers can monitor, protest, and film officers’ actions—all activities that are protected by the First Amendment, despite the administration’s assertions to the contrary.
The administration called the indictment a “crushing blow” to the “Antifa Terrorist Network.” Antifa is not a single membership organization with a centralized leadership structure, and legal experts have questioned the administration’s effort to treat it as a domestic terrorist organization.
While the indictment is among the most sweeping attacks on anti-ICE activists to date, the Trump administration has repeatedly attempted to criminalize First Amendment activities. Since Trump’s second term began, the DOJ has charged dozens of people in connection with alleged anti-ICE activity, including judges and staff at a medical clinic.
In Minnesota, some of the most serious allegations appear to involve Kyle Wagner, who is charged with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and interstate threats.
“We’re not talking about peaceful protests anymore,” he allegedly said in a video posted on Instagram on Jan. 24, 2026. “Get your ******* guns and stop these f****** people.”
The DOJ had already charged Wagner in February with making federal threats and cyberstalking. In both the February press release and the most recent indictment, the DOJ quotes from the January 24th social media post.
Another defendant is accused of kicking an ICE vehicle and another with assaulting an officer with her car. Federal prosecutors have repeatedly accused protesters and others of using their vehicles to attack federal agents; in some instances, surveillance footage has disproven their claims.
There are no victims named in the indictment. Federal agents, however, shot and killed two Minnesota residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti; no charges have been brought against their killers.
Local activists and unions lambasted the DOJ’s indictment against community members, several of whom are union members, according to a report in Workday Magazine.
“Trade unionists active in worker assemblies are among those who were arrested,” Kieran Knutson, president of Communications Workers of America Local 7250, told Workday Magazine. “They are outstanding union activists in their union and workplace, and I’m proud to know all of them.”
The indictment includes a Signal message allegedly written by Macalester College professor Erik Davis where he asked people with “connections to AFL-CIO leadership or decision-makers, [to] PLEASE ASK THEM TO FOCUS ON WHIPPLE AND NOT DOWNTOWN.”
Prosecutors say Davis moderated organizing meetings, and said he is an anarchist. They also allege that he attended an anti-ICE rally where other people wore “‘Antifa’ branded sweatshirts.”
Another defendant is accused of being part of a Signal group, writing a first-person account of an anti-ICE protest for an anarchist blog, and helping to maintain a database of license plate numbers belonging to vehicles used by ICE.
Read the full story at The Appeal.