Metro Surge
From December 2025 to February 2026, the Twin Cities and broader Minnesota became the target of DHS’s Operation Metro Surge. Over 3,000 agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol descended on Minnesota. Nearly 4000 people, mainly of Ecuadorian and Mexican descent, were arrested by federal agents. Three people were shot by federal agents and two of those three, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed.
Twin Cities residents took action against Operation Metro Surge, forming neighborhood networks to monitor and respond to agents’ activity, organizing food distribution networks for targeted people, and calling a general strike endorsed by more than a thousand labor unions. The collective action of Twin Cities residents inflamed federal officials, including Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who, according to recent reporting by CNN, expressed his anger with Minnesota prosecutors in early January for not more aggressively pursuing cases against protestors.
Raids and Arrests
On June 16, 2026, a grand jury filed an indictment against fifteen Minnesotans for their involvement in protesting Operation Metro Surge. Grand juries differ from typical juries in that jurors hear evidence only from the federal government to decide whether or not to prosecute a case, and in that jurors must only be in majority agreement, not unanimous agreement, in order to prosecute. At the time the indictment was unsealed, one defendant was already being held in pretrial custody on other charges. Between June 16-17, DHS agents arrested fourteen others, making arrests at gunpoint, breaking down doors and raiding homes, and attempting to interrogate defendants en route to jail.
Indictment
The charge shared by all defendants is conspiracy to injure or impede a federal officer, with a few of the fifteen also charged with interstate stalking, interstate threats, destruction of government property, solicitation to commit a violent crime, and assault on a federal officer. The government accuses the Minnesota 15 of activities like the construction and use of shields to defend against police projectiles, monitoring ICE vehicle traffic in and out of ICE headquarters and following ICE to the sites of raids, and blocking roadways out of ICE headquarters. Evidence in the indictment spans from January to May and largely consists of messages between defendants on the Signal app.
Prosecuting Agency
The Join Task Force Vanguard led the investigation into the Minnesota 15 and is now leading their prosecution. It is charged with implementing the federal government’s 2025 National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 initiative: to “investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations” that are advocating for “anti-fascism,” defined as "anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity” and/or “extremism on migration, race, and gender.”
Brian Lynch, who helms the Joint Task Force Vanguard and is one of the prosecutors in the MN15 case, was an active participant in the January 6th riot in Washington DC to overturn the 2020 election. Talking Points Memo broke the story in July with multiple photos of Lynch marching and in front of the Capitol Building.
National Wave of Repression
These charges are the latest in a wave of federal attempts to prosecute people for resisting ICE.
A New York Times investigation found that as of July 18, 2026, the Trump administration had charged more than 550 people across the U.S. with assaulting or impeding federal agents. The government has turned the formerly obscure federal statute 18 U.S.C. 111 into one of its main tools for arrests. The Times reports that an overwhelming number of the cases have fallen apart when prosecutors have discovered that federal agents had no evidence—and, frequently, had actually been the ones to assault the people they were now trying to charge.
But even as federal prosecution overwhelmingly lacks credibility, it is still a highly effective tactic for suppressing dissent. 2026 has seen groups of protesters and journalists targeted with indictments in Washington, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, and elsewhere.
Regardless of whether the prosecutions are successful, raids and arrests are traumatic and often cause people to lose their jobs and homes. Charges require thousands of collective hours for support and defense. They disrupt communities by banning defendants from being able to be in touch with each other. And they keep key organizers in a state of stress, often for years on end.
Defendants
A majority, but not all, of the Minnesota 15 are members of the organization Direct Action Minnesota. Tens of thousands of Minnesotans participated in resisting ICE in a range of ways. The federal government seemingly focused on DAMN because it is a collective that includes a lot of experienced, long-term organizers.
Despite the government’s attempt to frame them as on the fringe of society, they are members of communities and organizations across Minnesota. Eleven of the fifteen are veterans of the labor movement, while eight of the fifteen are current members of labor unions. Those unions are Minneapolis Federation of Educators (MFE) Local 59 (affiliated to both the National Education Association [NEA] & the American Federation of Teachers [AFT]), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 110, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) Local 1702, United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 1119, and American Association of University Professors (affiliated with AFT).
MN15 Legal Case
The defendants appeared in federal court in Minneapolis for the first time on July 1, with the exception of the defendant already incarcerated. During the hearing, the judge indicated procedural missteps on the part of the prosecution, including filing multiple motions without first conferring with the defense attorneys. All fourteen defendants present pleaded not guilty to all charges.
No-Contact Order:
- After being released from jail following their arrests, the Minnesota 15 were issued no-contact orders with their fellow defendants. The defense filed motions to amend the no-contact orders, arguing that they placed undue burden on defendants and violated their constitutional rights. The motions were denied with the exception of two defendants who live together, for whom the no-contact order was lifted. On July 22, 2026, the defense filed an appeal of the denial. As of September 24, 2026, no decision has been released.
- On August 25, 2026, a motion hearing was held before District Judge Katherine Menendez for both the prosecution and the defense to make their cases for or against the no-contact orders. During the hearing, prosecutor Sommer Honeycutt was unprepared to cite relevant case law that provides precedent for a no-contact order for the Minnesota 15. District Judge Menendez pointed out that there is not much precedent in this district or this circuit for either upholding or striking no-contact orders, so she will be establishing precedent in her response. As of September 1, 2026, no decision has been released.
Discovery:
- On August 13, 2026, defense attorney Kevin Riach filed a motion for broader access to discovery by the defense. The initial discovery, which included grand jury transcripts and materials, revealed the government’s attempt to paint a broad conspiracy between disparate parts of the left and organized labor, as well as the government’s proactive infiltration of the left in Minnesota, which began at least one day prior to DHS's formal announcement of Operation Metro Surge on December 4. Additionally, it revealed these investigations were subcategories of a larger Homeland Security undercover program called Operation Keyhole, which began nearly 18 years ago in December 2008.
- These efforts included widespread surveillance involving intelligence agents from around the country. Agents subpoenaed years of financial records of local labor unions, infiltrated organizing meetings and chats, and offered material support for local activists to take escalatory and potentially illegal actions. In his motion, Mr. Riach argued that the scope of surveillance revealed by the initial release of discovery demanded a broader level of access to discovery in order to build the defense.
International Solidarity
Given that violence against immigrants and people who work alongside them is a deeply working-class issue, unions and labor federations across Minnesota, the U.S., and as far away as Sweden and Brazil have come out with statements of support.
People are also forming a solidarity defense network across the U.S. and world—from Chicago and Richmond, Virginia to Vienna, Austria organizing fundraising events, forming solidarity committees, and strategizing together. As communities face multiple kinds of state violence, solidarity committees are serving to strengthen community defense more broadly. In Madison, the committee formed in solidarity with the MN15 has helped support protests after Madison police shot and killed Corey Ruiz on July 22, 2026. In southeast Michigan, home of the Michigan 8, the anti-ICE and Palestinian liberation movements are working together to defend against repression.
Escalating Attacks by ICE
Still, the federal government’s commitment to attacking immigrants continues. The published data can hardly keep up with the rate of violence. On July 30, the National Immigration Project reported that at least 23 people had died in ICE custody since the beginning of 2026. And on August 3, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo died in Delaney Detention Center. And federal agents have shot at least 11 people since January 2026, killing four of them.
Soon after the July murders of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Maine, both of whom were driving to/from work when they were killed, the New York Times reported the federal government told agents around the country that the FBI would no longer investigate immigration agents’ violence. (When confronted, the federal government denied circulating this guidance.)
More Information
You can see the latest media coverage and case updates here: https://minnesota15.org/news.
If you’d like to interview a defendant, reach out to media@minnesota15.org to be connected.