Court records in the 'Minnesota 15' case show ICE investigators infiltrated anti-ICE activist networks, Wired reports
Wired's investigation details the tools used, from undercover agents in Signal chats to Patriot Act financial queries and data-broker records, as described in court filings.
Defense attorneys for 15 Minnesota residents facing federal conspiracy charges have obtained discovery records describing a large surveillance operation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), part of ICE, Wired's Ali Winston reports. The defendants were part of volunteer networks that tracked federal immigration agents during last winter's Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities; prosecutors allege a conspiracy to impede enforcement and to identify, stalk and assault agents.
According to the records Wired reviewed, about 120 HSI agents, including 11 undercover officers, worked the case under investigations named Project Whipple Shield and Operation Puppet Master, funded through a long-running undercover program, Operation Keyhole. Agents joined trainings and meetings, read about 15 terabytes of infiltrated Signal chats, used Customs and Border Protection Reaper drone footage, ran Patriot Act 314(a) financial queries on 29 subjects, and combined hosting, payment and data-broker records to identify one activist. Defense lawyers and former officials quoted by Wired compare it to the FBI's COINTELPRO; the government's position is set out in its charges.
Hacker News commenters focused on how much of the data was bought from brokers rather than obtained by warrant.
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COINTELPRO
After exploring ICE Is Running One of the Largest Anti-Left Surveillance Operations in US History | WIRED, for the historical program critics invoke, read COINTELPRO.
The FBI's covert 1956-1971 programs to surveil, infiltrate, discredit and disrupt political groups it considered subversive, the comparison defense lawyers draw.
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