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Federal prosecutors announced charges against 15 protesters in Minnesota on Tuesday, accusing them of “conspiring to interfere with law enforcement” during Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) surge in Minnesota earlier this year.
On Tuesday morning, Homeland Security officials raided and arrested 12 of the 15 individuals. One was already in custody; two remain at large.
Daniel Rosen, the U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, began Tuesday’s press conference by asserting that “political violence is a national scourge in our times.” He was not, however, referring to the violence of immigration agents in Minnesota who shot and killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good, or the fact that 50 people have died in ICE jails since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term — but about anti-ICE protests that erupted after Trump ordered a massive ICE operation in Minnesota in December and January.
Rosen then said that federal law enforcement are “combatting” the “violence” of protesters, and that the 15 defendants took part in a “conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers.” He claimed that the defendants were members or associates of two Minneapolis-based “Antifa” groups that “violently opposed the enforcement of federal law” during Trump’s so-called Operation Metro Surge.
The charges include conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, interstate threats, interstate stalking, assault on a federal officer, and destruction of government property.
One of the groups is Direct Action Minnesota, which has organized protests against ICE and against the far right. The group was particularly active in January, as federal immigration agents terrorized immigrant communities, abducted residents, and brutalized protesters.
During the press conference, Rosen played a video of an individual who said that the situation in Minnesota under ICE’s surge was dire and called for people to bring arms to protest. The individual said he was “Antifa,” which is not an actual organization but a decentralized political movement, short for anti-fascist.
Rosen also displayed the Facebook page of another group, the Twin Cities Black Cat Worker’s Collective, and decried that it featured a drawing of the burning of Minneapolis’s 3rd Police Precinct during the George Floyd uprisings as its cover image.
For many, however, the image serves as a reminder of the Trump administration’s desire to clamp down on cities that have held protest movements. Minneapolis was the birthplace of the George Floyd rebellion in 2020; this legacy enabled it to organize and resist Trump’s ICE surge in December and January. And during the George Floyd uprisings, 54 percent of Americans thought the burning of the 3rd police precinct was justified following Floyd’s murder by police.
Rosen also referred to setting up blockades against ICE as a violent tactic, and called following law enforcement officers “stalking” — a claim that targets legal observers.
Reporters present at Tuesday’s press conference questioned the charges, asking repeatedly whether officers were injured. After first refusing to answer, Rosen said that “whether or not they actually at the end of the day caused bodily harm is not the measure of whether they committed a serious federal crime.” When a reporter asked if that meant no officers were injured, he said no, but refused to provide details.
Reporters also noted that between one-third and half of the cases against protesters during ICE’s “Operation Metro Surge” have been dropped or have fallen apart.
“You’ve talked about, ‘those who wish to threaten or harm, they will be held accountable, they will be prosecuted,’” one reporter said. “Here in Minnesota and across the country, people still have questions as to why there isn’t any prosecution or any charges filed against the officers who shot and killed Renee Good or the officers who shot and killed Alex Pretti.”
Rosen said those were still being investigated. When another reporter asked, “Who’s investigating? Which agencies?” Rosen said he would not be getting into any details.
Another reporter asked how Rosen defines Antifa.
“What is Antifa goes beyond the scope of what this indictment is,” Rosen responded.
But the Trump-appointed federal attorney included a direct threat in his response to reporters, saying, “If you are actively conspiring to impede law enforcement… you ought to go on the assumption that we’re watching you and that we’ll get you.”
‘Impeding’ law enforcement, however, is so broad a charge that it would likely apply to anti-ICE protesters across the country, such as those outside New Jersey’s Delaney Hall — making it clear that the aim of the administration is to clamp down on any resistance against its anti-immigrant agenda.
Protesters gathered outside of the Minneapolis federal courthouse after the charges were announced on Tuesday, with speakers from the National Lawyers Guild and others in solidarity with the defendants. Community defense attorney Anna Hall called the charges a “naked political attack on Minnesota.”
“It’s part of ongoing repression by Donald Trump and his administration since at least December 2025 here in Minnesota, and all we’re seeing is this continuing to escalate,” Hall said.
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