Key facts
- Federal agents infiltrated community meetings and private activist Signal chats.
- DHS investigators obtained financial records of unions and non-profits.
- The surveillance operation was part of an inquiry into "domestic terrorist financing."
- An agent accidentally dropped a recording device during an event.
- Emilia González Avalos described the operation as an attempt to intimidate and repress dissent.
Newly disclosed court documents reveal that federal agents conducted a broad surveillance operation targeting anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters, labor unions, and left-leaning advocacy groups. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deployed undercover agents to infiltrate community meetings, join private activist Signal chats, and surreptitiously record audio at local events.
Investigators issued administrative subpoenas to seize financial records from unions and non-profits as part of an inquiry into "domestic terrorist financing." One incident detailed in the documents involved an agent accidentally dropping a recording device during a sparring session at a church gym.
Emilia González Avalos, executive director of Unidos MN, a Minneapolis social justice non-profit, stated that the operation is a "clear attempt to intimidate us, to punish and politically repress disagreement and difference."