Immigration

Minneapolis Activists Used Encrypted Group Chats To Outmaneuver ICE. Now the Feds Want To Prosecute Them.

"I think courts are going to be very suspicious of how broad this is," one Minnesota lawyer tells Reason.

Eric Boehm | From the November 2026 issue

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(Photo: Whipple Building immigration protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in February 2026; Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Getty)

On the morning federal immigration agents shot Alex Pretti in the back, Emmanuel Mauleón, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, was standing on a ladder outside his house, pulling down holiday decorations. That's when his phone started buzzing.

Pretti's death would quickly become a national news story. Coming soon after the killing of Renée Good, this was the second time in less than a month that the federal agents swarming Minneapolis had gunned down an American citizen in the street. The outcry forced the Trump administration to reassess its aggressive deportation tactics, prompted a reshuffling of officials overseeing those efforts, and led to congressional hearings and investigations that are ongoing.

Before footage of Pretti's death spread across social media and news outlets around the world, many residents of the Twin Cities learned what happened the same way Mauleón did: via urgent pings on their phones.

For weeks, a sprawling, informal network of group chats—largely using the encrypted messaging app Signal—had been a vital part of the public response to what the Trump administration called "Operation Metro Surge." The operation deployed thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and other federal law enforcement personnel, tasked with apprehending and deporting undocumented immigrants. Their tactics were blunt and aggressive, as they disregarded warrant requirements and drew allegations of racial profiling and unlawful arrests.

In response, those decentralized Signal chats turned ordinary Minnesotans into modern-day Paul Reveres. Participants shared information about ICE activity, warned businesses of potential raids, helped track agents and vehicles across the city, and organized legal assistance for detainees.

On January 24, those networks lit up with footage of federal agents pepper spraying, tackling, and shooting Pretti multiple times. "My phone started blowing up with videos from Signal and then finally the news," says Mauleón. "I remember being stunned and standing on the top [of the ladder] for too long, worried about my footing."

It's been more than seven months since Pretti was killed and nearly that long since Operation Metro Surge came to an end.

Across Minneapolis, however, it can feel as though little time has passed. Many bars, restaurants, and coffee shops have signs on the door telling ICE agents they are unwelcome. Some signs explicitly tell the feds to come back with a warrant. Anti-ICE messages adorn front lawns and sidewalks. Mauleón calls it "the residue of resistance."

The chats are part of that residue too. A friend flips open Signal and scrolls through several still-active chats while we watch a soccer game at a bar on Nicollet Mall in late June. The federal occupation is still discussed in the present tense.

Those same chats now sit at the center of another story. In a 94-page indictment filed in June, the Department of Justice (DOJ) accused 15 protesters of participating in a conspiracy to interrupt federal immigration enforcement and law enforcement operations. That alleged conspiracy was coordinated via "social media, text messaging, and encrypted messaging applications, such as Signal," the indictment explains, "with the goal of preventing, hindering, delaying, and impeding the enforcement of federal immigration law." The defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Has the Trump administration finally brought antifa to justice? In a statement, the White House called the indictment "a crushing blow" to the "domestic terrorist organization."

Those who participated in or cheered on the protests against immigration enforcement during Operation Metro Surge are calling it something else: a worrying crackdown on Americans' First Amendment rights to talk and organize with their neighbors, friends, and co-workers against the federal government's violent behavior.

More Than a Few 'Far-Left Agitators'

The week before Pretti was killed, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino was asked about the response he'd seen to ICE's operations in the Twin Cities.

Operation Metro Surge was the latest in a series of similar efforts that had played out across various American cities during President Donald Trump's first year back in office. Bovino had played a major role in planning and executing them. He'd clearly relished his role as the public face of the operations. Bovino strutted through snowy Minneapolis in a leather trench coat and clashed with protesters—in one video that made the rounds on social media, he lobs a canister of tear gas into a jeering crowd.

"We've been in many cities, as you know. We've been in Los Angeles and Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and now, obviously, Minneapolis," Bovino told reporters. "What we've seen that's a bit different here is the organization of some of the groups. The groups are a bit better organized."

Months later, Luis Argueta, communications director for Unidos MN, a nonprofit that played a critical role in organizing the protests and resistance efforts in Minnesota, remembers feeling proud when he heard that line.

"It was the height of compliments," he says.

Starting last year, Unidos MN and a sister organization, Monarca, began offering what they call "legal observer trainings." The trainings focused on informing people of their rights and the rights of anyone targeted by immigration enforcement, as well as what law enforcement is and isn't allowed to........

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