How the surveillance network confronting ICE agents in Minneapolis operates

In less than a month, two "ICE watchers" have been killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis. In late January, a federal agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who worked in an intensive care unit. A couple of weeks earlier, Renee Good, an activist of the same age and mother of three, had been killed while trying to obstruct an immigration raid in broad daylight.

According to a new City Journal (CJ) investigative report, both Pretti and Good were participating in so-called "ICE watching," a practice that consists of "tracking ICE agents, filming arrests, and alerting other activists of enforcement actions."

Although organizers and advocates of this practice present it as a form of "community safety," City Journal argues that it exposes unprepared civilians to dangerous confrontations with armed federal agents.

Defend the 612: "The heart of the city's resistance"

City Journal revealed that one of the main organizers of "ICE watching" in Minneapolis is Defend the 612, a group whose name alludes to the city's area code and whose members and allies have encouraged protesters to obstruct the work of federal agents and engage in risky confrontations with them. The report reviewed this group's training, accessed its Signal network and tracked its organizational support structure.

City Journal discovered that this organization, which Renee Good was apparently a part of, coordinates an extensive Signal chat room network dedicated to observing and protesting against ICE operations, and that it has become "the heart of the city's resistance to federal immigration enforcement."

Defend the 612 also offers courses on ICE surveillance on its website, where they "instruct attendees how to identify, document, and alert others to immigration enforcement, and to relay information through neighborhood-based Signal networks."

According to City Journal's investigation, the extensive chat network operated by this group is "an extensive network of neighborhood- and task-based Signal chats, where members monitor ICE activity, train fellow activists, and coordinate protests."

How does Signal's network work?

As City Journal documented, once a volunteer joins the chat assigned to his or her neighborhood, Defend the 612 administrators get in touch to offer access to a number of additional channels that are not publicly visible, which are organized by specific functions. These include the Non-Cooperation Team, charged with "build[ing] a larger strategy to resist ICE and authoritarianism," and the Patrol Team, dedicated to "creat[ing] systems of safety" around "ICE hotspots."

Depending on the role, some of these chats require prior verification—that is, administrators screen those who wish to join—while others do not. In unverified channels, City Journal notes that administrators and members recommend participants use nicknames and avoid any reference to illegal activities.

How "ICE watching" works

City Journal revealed that the most active unverified chats are dedicated to "quick response" at the neighborhood level: "IIn these discussions, participants track suspected ICE agents—by car and on foot—and post suspected officers’ locations, photos, and license plate numbers."

In addition to the text chat, City Journal highlighted that an operator places a live group phone call, employing paramilitary jargon—such as "copy," "roger," "eyes on" and "keep the air clear"—to coordinate surveillance by ICE agents.

The investigation detailed that some chats also include "a running database of more than 4,800 license plates of confirmed and suspected ICE vehicles; a log of deportation-related travel; and a list of nearly 70 hotels where ICE agents have been known to stay."

Controlling the narrative

Another chat room examined by City Journal is Communications, which is engaged in crafting a "external narrative-shaping strategy" for the ICE-watch movement. The report found that "participants discussed the need to condition their speech to journalists on retaining editorial control over how stories are written."

In their training, members of the group have also called legal detentions of undocumented immigrants "kidnappings" and "abductions," and have described Minneapolis as a city under "federal 'occupation'" and subject to "rising authoritarianism."

Recruitment

City Journal noted that in the eyes of the organizers of Defend the 612, Renee Good's death was a recruiting opportunity.

On the night Good died, the group held an "emergency vigil," during which flyers were distributed asking attendees to join the organization. At the group's training session the following day, a close member of Defend the 612 reported that some 1,000 people had signed up.

After Alex Pretti's death, the group has not slowed down. City Journal revealed that organizers are leveraging the situation "to fuel a new wave of activity, urging more people to enter the same dangerous settings that claimed Pretti’s life."

According to the report, a day after the protester's death, an organizer sent the following message to the organization's Signal chats: "The only way these senseless murders, detentions and acts of violence will stop," the message read, "is if tens and thousands [sic] of us are on the streets protecting each other."

City Journal concludes that this cycle reveals the central strategy of the Defend the 612 leadership: using casualties as a catalyst for further escalation:

"Organizers continue to push volunteers into unpredictable scenes, ensuring continued confrontations between residents and federal agents, while the professional architects of the chaos remain shielded from the consequences," the report reads.