ICE Spying Operation Against Activists Surfaces in Minnesota Case

Attorneys for 15 Minnesota residents facing federal conspiracy charges say court records show Immigration and Customs Enforcement ran a sweeping surveillance campaign against left-wing organizers in their state and beyond, according to WIRED. The filings, built from discovery in the case known as the Minnesota 15, include reports, audio transcripts, emails, intercepted Signal chats, photographs and database queries gathered by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations division, WIRED reported.

What does the Minnesota 15 case show?

The prosecution of 15 Minnesota residents on federal conspiracy charges produced records that defense attorneys say point to a far larger operation than the case itself. One attorney in the case told WIRED the campaign resembles COINTELPRO, the FBI program that surveilled, infiltrated and blackmailed civil rights and anti-war organizers from the 1950s into the early 1970s. Three former law enforcement officials who reviewed the filings told WIRED the case is almost certainly part of a wider intelligence-gathering effort that predates the federal government's December 2025 move into Minnesota.

What are Operation Keyhole and Project Whipple Shield?

Operation Keyhole, an HSI undercover funding program dating to 2008, financed the Minnesota 15 investigation, WIRED reported. As of June 2026, it was underwriting roughly six active undercover investigations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. Around 120 HSI agents, including 11 undercover operatives, were assigned to the case, many pulled from specialized units that have led the administration's immigration enforcement operations elsewhere, according to WIRED. The investigations run under the names Project Whipple Shield and Operation Puppet Master.

What is National Security Presidential Memorandum 7?

The legal authority behind the operations traces to National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, issued after the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September 2025, WIRED reported. The memo directs federal law enforcement to use every available tool against organizations and individuals who criticize the administration's policies or espouse what the memo calls "anti-Christian" ideas. WIRED notes the full scope of investigations it authorizes remains unknown.

How does this compare to past domestic surveillance programs?

Experts told WIRED that nothing on this scale has occurred since the federal government's counterinsurgency against the New Left and anti-war movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Defense attorneys argue the Minnesota prosecution is a downstream product of a nationwide surveillance effort aimed at opponents of the administration's immigration policies.

Timeline

• 2008: HSI launches Operation Keyhole as an undercover funding mechanism.
• September 2025: Charlie Kirk is assassinated; NSPM 7 is issued shortly after.
• December 2025: Federal operations expand into Minnesota.
• June 2026: Operation Keyhole is funding about six active undercover probes in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area.
• October 2026: Discovery filings in the Minnesota 15 case surface details of the surveillance program.

What to watch

• Whether defense attorneys obtain further discovery tying the Minnesota case to surveillance of activists in other states.
• Any court rulings on whether HSI's undercover funding and intercepted communications were lawfully obtained.
• Congressional or inspector general inquiries into the scope of NSPM 7.
• Whether DHS or ICE issues a public response to the WIRED findings.

Neither ICE nor DHS is quoted responding to the specific claims in the WIRED report as cited in the source material reviewed for this story.