Minnesota protesters face federal charges over immigration raids

Federal prosecutors charged 15 people in Minnesota with conspiring to impede or injure federal officers, escalating the legal fallout from protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis and nearby communities.

The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security announced the charges Tuesday in Minneapolis. Officials said the defendants face a series of charges that include conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers, assault on a federal officer and destruction of government property.

U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said the charges stem from demonstrations on Jan. 23 and March 1 outside a federal detention center during the immigration operation known as Metro Surge. Twelve defendants were arrested Tuesday morning, one was already in custody on other federal charges and two remained at large, officials said.

Prosecutors accused the defendants of using vehicles and blocks of ice to block or slow federal agents’ vehicles and of using homemade shields made of plastic, wood and metal to physically resist law enforcement. Rosen also said the protesters followed and surveilled officers.

“They all joined an agreement, a conspiracy to interfere with lawful immigration enforcement operations,” Rosen said at a news conference. “The conspiracy was not to interfere by their voice, but to do it by force; that’s a crime, and it will not be tolerated in the United States.”

Rosen declined to say whether any officers were injured during the demonstrations. “Whether or not they actually, at the end of the day, cause bodily harm is not the measure of whether or not they committed a serious federal crime,” he said.

Prosecutors said the defendants were associated with two Minneapolis-based “antifa” groups that “violently oppose immigration law enforcement.” Rosen showed social media posts and videos that he said supported the allegations, including one video in which a defendant claimed the term antifa and discussed bringing guns to a demonstration. Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is an umbrella term for loosely affiliated far-left activists and groups, and is more often described as an ideology than a formal organization.

Rosen indicated the investigation is continuing. “If you are actively conspiring to impede law enforcement … you ought to go on the assumption that we’re watching, and we’ll get you,” he said, according to The Guardian.

The charges follow months of unrest tied to Metro Surge, which brought thousands of federal agents to Minnesota at the end of November. NBC News reported the operation sent 3,000 federal agents to the state. The Guardian reported the crackdown was based in part on fraud allegations against Somali residents.

Tensions rose over aggressive tactics by federal agents, including pepper-spraying crowds and using force on civilians. During the operation, groups of observers and activists often gathered quickly at enforcement sites, blowing whistles and honking horns to warn others that ICE and Border Patrol agents were present.

Immigration authorities shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Renee Good, 37, a mother of young children, and Alex Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse at a local Veterans Affairs hospital, in separate confrontations. The killings, captured on video, prompted outrage, large protests and criticism from Democrats and some Republican lawmakers.

State prosecutors in Minnesota have also brought charges against two ICE officers in separate cases involving alleged violence against civilians. One officer was charged last month with four counts of assault and falsely reporting a crime after prosecutors said he shot through the front door of a residence. Another agent was charged in April with felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon after allegedly pointing a gun at two civilians in a vehicle.

Outside the federal courthouse Tuesday, dozens of people gathered to oppose the new charges, The Guardian reported. Some signs read “stop FBI entrapment” and “protesting is not a crime.”