Chicago-Area Police Helped ICE Surveil Minnesota Activists

A 14-member task force of local police and federal agents conducted in-person and electronic surveillance of a April 2 gathering of Minnesota anti-ICE activists, according to newly released documents reviewed by WIRED. The task force included six local officers and eight agents from Homeland Security Investigations' Chicago office, per the records.

The surveillance fed a federal conspiracy case against 15 Twin Cities activists now facing felony charges for resisting Operation Metro Surge, a three-month immigration enforcement push that resulted in the killings of two US citizens, WIRED reported, citing the case file.

What did the April report describe?

An HSI report titled "Antifa Roadshow," dated April and reviewed by WIRED, lays out the task force's surveillance of the April 2 talk, where self-described anarchists in Minnesota discussed their organizing experience during Operation Metro Surge. The document was released by the defense team for the 15 Minnesota activists as part of the ongoing federal prosecution, according to WIRED.

Which agencies supplied officers to the task force?

The unit drew personnel from Chicago, Aurora, Downers Grove, Cook County, and Kane County, WIRED reported. Records produced by the Kane County Sheriff's office identify the unit as the Chicago-area Homeland Security Investigations Task Force, a joint body that accepts local officers on full- or part-time rotations of two years with their superiors' sign-off, per the documents cited by WIRED.

What surveillance tools did the task force use?

The operation combined two undercover agents with unspecified electronic surveillance, audio recordings, license-plate-reader data, and footage pulled from Chicago's citywide CCTV camera network, according to WIRED's review of the records. Investigators used that mix to identify attendees at the April 2 event and to draw connections between that gathering and other anti-ICE protests in Illinois and other states, the report states.

The only financial detail in the HSI report is a reference to a GoFundMe account supporting the Crimethinc speaking tour, according to WIRED; no other funding or budget figures appear in the document.

Does Illinois' sanctuary law cover this kind of cooperation?

Illinois state law bars local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement operations. HSI's criminal investigations, however, appear to sit outside that restriction because they fall under the agency's broader law enforcement functions rather than its immigration-enforcement role, WIRED reported. That distinction has become a flashpoint since Operation Midway Blitz in Illinois last autumn, after which residents in Chicago and surrounding communities pressed elected officials for details on how far local-federal cooperation extends, according to the report.

Chicago police separately operate under a 2017 departmental order that imposes approval requirements before officers can surveil or infiltrate protests or public gatherings. It remains unclear, per WIRED's reporting, how that order applies when CPD officers are embedded in joint task forces run by a federal agency rather than acting independently.

What does the Chicago Police Department say happened?

In response to questions from WIRED, CPD said no First Amendment notifications were made to the department's chain of command or its general counsel for the April 2 investigation. The department said its work with HSI was permitted under Illinois law because it involved criminal enforcement rather than immigration enforcement, according to WIRED. A source with knowledge of the matter told WIRED that CPD believed the early-April surveillance operation was conducted in service of a federal racketeering investigation.

What happens next in the Minnesota case?

The 15 Twin Cities activists remain charged with federal felonies tied to their alleged resistance to Operation Metro Surge, the three-month immigration enforcement campaign in Minneapolis that WIRED's sourcing links to the killings of two US citizens. Their defense team's release of the "Antifa Roadshow" report and related task-force records is part of the ongoing litigation, according to WIRED, and the documents are now the basis for public questions about whether the Chicago-area task force's methods crossed from criminal investigation into monitoring of First Amendment-protected organizing. WIRED's reporting does not indicate that CPD or the other local agencies named have altered their task-force participation since the records became public.

For the full set of records and WIRED's complete sourcing, read the original report.