Documents show how feds spied on protesters, left-wing organizations and unions during Minnesota Surge

Federal agents stage at a front gate as Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Rep. Angie Craig, all Minnesota Democrats, attempt to enter the regional Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on Jan. 10, 2026. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Homeland Security investigators secretly recorded conversations, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained financial records for labor unions and progressive groups as part of a wide-ranging surveillance effort during Operation Metro Surge, according to court documents filed Thursday morning. 

The documents, first reported by The New York Times, were filed by defense attorneys in the federal case against 15 Minnesotans accused of conspiracy to impede or injure a federal agent.

The feds’ surveillance programs, dubbed “Operation Puppet Master” and “Operation Whipple Shield,” go far beyond the 15 people indicted. 

Homeland Security agents used administrative subpoenas — subpoenas issued by the federal agency rather than a judge — to obtain financial records from organizations including the labor unions Service Employees International Union and Communications Workers of America; Voices for Racial Justice, a longstanding racial justice training organization; and Sunrise Movement, an environmental justice organization that organized noise protests outside of immigration agents’ hotels during Operation Metro Surge.

“This broad collection of financial records of labor and social justice advocacy organizations, done in secret and with no articulable criminal predicate, violates both the First Amendment and these organizations’ right to financial privacy,” the attorneys wrote.

Undercover agents posing as activists surveilled and recorded meetings at the United Labor Centre building in Minneapolis, Loring Park, the Augsburg Park Library and various churches. 

At a Sunrise Movement meeting at the Minneapolis Public Library, one undercover agent said he worked in construction and that he “could build items that might assist other groups with more ‘direct action’ protests,” according to an internal Homeland Security report. (The meeting, according to the undercover agent in attendance, centered on peaceful tactics, including noise protests and sit-ins.)

Agents collected the license plate numbers of attendees during a meeting of anti-ICE protesters at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Roseville to obtain the names of the attendees. The agents then compiled a dossier including attendees’ names, photos, addresses, vehicle registrations, family and employment information.

The feds also used Clearview AI, a facial recognition software, to compile photo dossiers of activists and protesters, including many who were not charged. 

A diagram shown to the grand jury during the indictment process linked a number of organizations to the conspiracy — centered around an organization called “Direct Action MN” — with no evidence, according to the defense attorneys. The organizations include SEIU, the AFL-CIO, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators, Monarca, Democratic Socialists of America and Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, the labor union representing state workers. 

“The Minnesota AFL-CIO and several of our affiliated unions are being targeted simply because our state’s Labor Movement stood in solidarity with our immigrant union members and neighbors when our state was under siege this past winter,” Minnesota AFL-CIO president Bernie Burnham said in a statement.

In a statement to the grand jury as the DOJ presented its charges against the 15 protesters, HSI agent Desmond Garcia told the jury “No one is ever investigated or looked at or even researched on for First Amendment protected activities.”

“Every single individual that we have investigated there is a criminal predicate to why we’re investigating them, either statements that they have made that are criminal to their actual participation in overt criminal acts,” Garcia said, according to the transcript.

A memorandum issued by President Donald Trump in September directed the U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security to investigate “all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them.” It also expanded the definition of “domestic terrorism” to include crimes like revealing personal details of federal agents or getting in the way of immigration enforcement. 

The defense attorneys argue that the memorandum has formed the basis of political prosecutions and surveillance campaigns across the country. 

Many of those prosecutions have fallen apart, including at least half of the cases against anti-ICE activists in Minnesota. 

“The government’s initial disclosures reflect that HSI and DOJ embarked on an improper investigation of First Amendment protected activity without any suggestion that the investigation’s targets had committed any crime,” the defense attorneys wrote. The motion continues: “Indeed, HSI undercover officers seemingly sought to manufacture a basis for prosecution where no crimes had been committed.”

Dozens of people gather to show solidarity with the 15 Minnesotans indicted for conspiracy to impede or injure a federal agent outside of the Diane E. Murphy federal courthouse during their arraignment hearing Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

The attorneys are seeking a swath of documents from the federal government, including communications between the DOJ and Homeland Security regarding decisions to charge protesters; downloads of undercover agents’ laptops and phones; and all Clearview AI reports generated during Operation Metro Surge. They are also seeking additional investigative reports filed by undercover agents and their supervisors, writing that the number of undercover agents involved and the data gaps in their summaries suggest the government has not produced all of its documentation on “Operation Puppet Master” and “Operation Whipple Shield.”

The court records also mention the existence of another undercover operation called “Project Keyhole,” though the documents provided no explanation or details. 

In the prosecution of the 15 anti-ICE protesters, prosecutors said they have 20 terabytes of data in their possession, though not all of it is directly related to the defendants.

“I’m inferring that not every bit of evidence was necessarily gathered pursuant to a warrant,” said U.S. District Judge David Schultz in an earlier hearing in the case.

Fourteen of the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

In response to the revelations in the court documents, a number of organizations released a joint statement, distributed by Unidos MN. The signees include Education Minnesota, Minnesota 50501, MAPE, SEIU and several of its locals, and the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

“Minnesotans will not be intimidated or divided by sham accusations or investigations of some of the countless groups and community members who organized, acted, and stood up together to protect their neighbors during Operation Metro Surge,” the statement reads. “Around the country, the Trump regime’s weaponized DOJ is lashing out desperately in hopes of intimidating people and organizations that have shown the power of communities acting together to challenge abuses of government power and defend democracy.”