Labor and faith groups decry federal indictment of 15 anti-ICE protesters

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Minnesota Reformer) — Fifty labor, religious and other progressive groups condemned the federal indictment of 15 anti-ICE protesters in a statement released on Thursday, accusing the Trump administration of weaponizing the Department of Justice in an effort to intimidate political opponents.

“We’ve seen this playbook before: when self-serving politicians are losing, they lie, lash out and attempt political repression … But Minnesotans have already proven we won’t cave to bullies and their billionaire backers, no matter their fearmongering and division,” the statement says.

The 15 individuals — among them a union carpenter and a Buddhism professor at Macalester College — are charged with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal agent during the unprecedented incursion of thousands of immigration agents to the state for Operation Metro Surge. Four defendants face additional charges including stalking, destruction of government property, assault on a federal officer and interstate threats.

The allegations include posting a video to Instagram urging people to “get your f*cking guns and stop these f*cking people”; creating barriers out of trailers to impede ICE agents; following a federal agent from the Whipple Building to Hudson, Wisconsin; kicking and denting a federal vehicle; “brake-checking” and “side-swiping” a federal officer on the road; and knocking an ICE agents’ notes out of his hand.

The indictment also references a group of people throwing “large ice blocks” at law enforcement but doesn’t allege that the defendants did so — only that one of the defendants spoke to the group.

The U.S. Attorney for Minnesota heralded the charges as a significant step in combating the scourge of political violence, though he would not say if any federal agents were injured.

Many of the federal government’s criminal cases against anti-ICE protesters have fallen apart. The Department of Justice dropped half of the 36 cases it filed in December and January against people for assaulting or impeding federal immigration agents, including three with prejudice, according to MPR News.

The federal government has not filed charges against any agent for illegal misconduct and is withholding evidence from local prosecutors in the killings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty filed assault charges against an ICE agent for brandishing his service weapon at two people on the highway in an apparent road rage incident, as well as the ICE officer who shot a Venezuelan national in the leg as he was trying to flee.

Separately, Human Rights Watch, which investigates abuses around the world, released a 180-page report on Thursday documenting what they call a “human rights crisis” caused by Operation Metro Surge.

The report, titled “A Manufactured Crisis: Minnesota Communities Terrorized by the Federal Government,” is based on interviews with over 130 people, including immigrants, lawyers, government officials and healthcare providers.

It details widespread abuses that drew international attention to Minnesota and shifted public sentiment on the Trump administration’s deportation campaign. Masked agents racially profiled people running errands, brutally arrested immigrants and protesters and restricted lawyers’ access to clients.

The report explains how the operation created a chilling effect, forcing undocumented and legal residents to skip work, school and medical appointments out of fear of being swept up in the deportation dragnet.

Human Rights Watch’s report lists a series of steps all levels of government should take: hold accountable those responsible for abuses, remedy the harms of the operation, and make sweeping changes in the Department of Homeland Security.

Those demands are sure to go nowhere at the federal level as the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress aim to deliver on their campaign promises of mass deportations, with around 60,000 people currently in detention centers around the country.

At the state level, bills proposing greater restrictions on federal agents and funding to help affected people and businesses stalled in the closely divided Legislature. Republicans were unified in opposition, though lawmakers did approve funding for rental assistance which Democrats touted as assistance for immigrants.