Trump’s crackdown on ICE protesters already shows signs of backfiring

Earlier this year, the occupation of Minneapolis by Immigration and Customs Enforcement was in full swing, with more than 4,000 Department of Homeland Security officers in the city at its peak. During the operation, ICE wreaked havoc on the city, snatching residents off the streets and from their homes, sometimes leaving cars abandoned on the side of the road. Locals responded with widespread protests and grassroots efforts to track ICE, so the department turned their energy on protesters. The crackdown led to confrontations between federal officers and protesters, some of which resulted in deadly force from the government.

Last week, the Department of Justice indicted 15 activists in Minnesota, alleging that they had conspired to impede the operations of Homeland Security employees and had ties to “antifa,” or anti-fascist groups. However, local activists say that the indictments, which are widely seen as an attempt to suppress political dissent and send a message to other protesters, have already backfired.

The alleged actions took place during the Trump administration’s deadly Operation Metro Surge, which saw Immigration and Customs Enforcement occupy Minneapolis for roughly three months and kill two Americans. Two deadly shootings by federal officers on the streets of Minneapolis occurred: On Jan. 7, ICE officer Jonathan Ross killed Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three. Just weeks later, Customs and Border Patrol officers killed Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The same month, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, a Minneapolis delivery driver, was shot by federal agents and later charged with assault, though the case later fell apart after the DOJ admitted that two officers had made “false statements” under oath, according to ICE.

Related

ICE cutting its losses in Minneapolis, leaving scars behind

These killings, alongside the violence and widespread chaos resulting from ICE operations, like clouds of tear gas, schools and businesses closing and widespread anxiety and fear from the occupation, resulted in significant resistance to ICE and CBP from Minnesota residents, who also shared their methods of protecting immigrants in their community with organizers around the country.

Last week’s indictment focused on alleged associates of Direct Action Minnesota, which the government describes as “an organization dedicated and committed to direct action against federal law and immigration enforcement” with ties to anti-fascist groups, or, in the government’s words, “antifa.” In the indictment, the government alleges that protesters blocked ICE facilities and surveilled and harassed government employees while communicating in a Signal group chat, which they say was used to identify government vehicles. When pressed on whether any ICE or CBP officers were hurt by any of the indicted at a press conference, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen simply said that “is not the measure of whether or not they committed a serious federal crime.”

(Photo by Kerem YUCEL / AFP via Getty Images) Border Patrol agents detain a person near Roosevelt High School during dismissal time as federal immigration enforcement actions sparked protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 7, 2026.

The prosecutions also appear to be brought according to the priorities set forth in President Donald Trump’s seventh National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-7), which laid out a strategy for targeting Americans with political views disfavored by the administration. These included anti-fascists and those with what the government describes as anti-Christianity, anti-capitalist and anti-American views.

After the indictments came down, however, activists in Minnesota, who see the prosecutions as an attempt to discourage dissent and tamp down anti-ICE sentiments, have only become more stalwart in their commitment to opposing the administration’s agenda.

Michelle Gross, the president of the Minneapolis-based Citizens United Against Police Brutality, told Salon in an interview that, based on her observations, this move from the administration has already backfired.

Start your day with essential news from Salon.

Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.

“Most people are like, ‘we will defend you,’” Gross said, pointing to social media and “how much people have just started tossing money toward the defense, and how people are showing up at the hearings. There was one person who didn’t have the hearing on Tuesday, and had it on Wednesday instead, and another whole group of people showed up on Wednesday.”

Gross said that in Minneapolis, there’s a widespread perception that the federal government is attempting to make it look as though activists and protesters in the state are backing down in the wake of the indictment.

“The insane part to me is for them to have any nerve to call anybody in our movement violent when they murdered two of our people and maimed the third,” Gross said.  “And by the way, those people that did that have had no consequences, they’re off working for ICE still in some other location.”

For context, Minnesota has requested access to information regarding the killings of Good and Pretti but has not filed charges against the officers who killed them yet. The state filed charges against the officer who shot Aljorna in May.

Spring savings are here!

Support Salon’s bold journalism. Annual members save 58%

Gross said that in her view, Minneapolis residents had their political convictions tested during the protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin and the subsequent crackdowns on protesters by police.

Lisa Erbes, a co-leader of the Twin Cities chapter of Indivisible, a grassroots progressive organization, described a similar reaction to the indictments, adding that many expect the case against the 15 indicted activists to fall apart in court.

“We’ve already seen this happen in Chicago with the Broadview Six, and they literally brought the same charges against those people,” Erbes said. “And they’ve all been dismissed with prejudice, meaning they can’t be refiled.”

In the Chicago case, federal prosecutors accused six protesters of felony conspiracy, alleging that they had blocked an ICE vehicle. The case, which was brought in October of last year, quickly fell apart, with all charges being dropped by April.

Erbes also highlighted how federal prosecutors have managed to assemble a case against these 15 protesters, but still don’t appear to have made any serious efforts to investigate the two killings by federal officers in Minneapolis.

“They’ve managed to find the time to charge these 15 people who were constitutional observers and protesters, yet we’re still waiting for something to happen with the Renee Good and Alex Pretti cases,” Erbes said. “When Rosen was asked about that during the press conference, he stumbled on that one, too, because there isn’t anything happening with that investigation. They’re not working with the state of Minnesota, and the people who killed Renee and Alex are still walking around free with no charges.”

Erbes also noted that, as in the Broadview Six case, there is an understanding among activists that “the process is the punishment” in these cases, meaning that, even if the prosecution isn’t able to secure convictions, the cost in both time and money for a legal defense serves as a punishment in itself.

“They know they don’t have good cases, they’ve done this over and over again, and they don’t even care about that. What they’re trying to do is scare people and intimidate people into not protesting,” Erbes said.

Ezra Levin, the national co-director of Indivisible, also underscored what he saw as a connection to a recent raid of an Ohio voting rights group, saying that he sees both the Ohio raid and the indictments of anti-ICE protesters as attempts at suppressing dissent ahead of the midterm elections.

“What we’re seeing is a ramp-up from the regime as the midterms near, and I think that’s exactly what you would expect to see from an authoritarian regime that fears free, fair elections,” Levin said. “They don’t want people protesting, they don’t want people registering folks to vote, they don’t want people turning people out to vote, and it’s because they fear that they’re facing a massive wave election that’s going to take away power of either the House or the Senate, or both.”

Read more

about DHS

Not just ICE: Do we need DHS?

ICE is recruiting cops to track down kids

Escalating tensions at Newark migrant prison draws ire of lawmakers

The post Trump’s crackdown on ICE protesters already shows signs of backfiring appeared first on Salon.com.