Politics

Federal Prosecutors Charged 15 Minneapolis Activists With Conspiring to Block ICE

By Mike Harper · June 17, 2026

Twelve of the fifteen were arrested Tuesday morning. One was already in custody. Two are still at large. The 94-page indictment was unsealed at a press conference in Minneapolis by US Attorney Daniel Rosen and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy.

Federal prosecutors charged 15 people with conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers, accusing them of organizing violent resistance to ICE operations in Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign earlier this year. Additional charges against individual defendants include solicitation to commit a crime of violence, interstate stalking, assault on a federal officer, and destruction of government property.

The defendants are allegedly members and associates of two Minneapolis-based groups — Direct Action Minnesota and the Black Hat Workers Collective — which prosecutors described as antifa-affiliated organizations that used the cover of public protests to coordinate attacks on federal personnel and facilities.

The indictment describes a pattern of escalating confrontation during what the administration called Operation Metro Surge. On January 23, protesters allegedly gathered at the federal Whipple Building and threw blocks of ice at law enforcement vehicles, then formed a human blockade to box agents into a restricted area. On March 1, conspirators allegedly carrying shields blocked the same building after multiple dispersal orders. The indictment alleges that defendants stalked federal agents, tracked their movements, and shared that information through encrypted messaging.

“These defendants have been charged not for what they said, but what they did,” Rosen told reporters.

The charges come at a complicated moment for Minnesota federal prosecutors. Approximately half of the 36 individual cases previously filed against ICE protesters during Operation Metro Surge have been dismissed. Judges have questioned the evidence. Defense lawyers have challenged whether the conduct described — blocking, chanting, standing in the way — constitutes a federal crime. Reporters confronted Rosen with those failures at Tuesday’s press conference.

“You watch how this case plays out. You watch how the evidence plays out.”

The 94 pages suggest prosecutors believe this case is different from the individual protest cases that collapsed. The conspiracy theory — that these defendants planned and coordinated violent interference rather than simply showing up at protests — is legally distinct from charging individual protesters with obstructing agents in the moment. Whether the evidence supports that distinction is what the trial will determine.

All 15 defendants are from Minnesota. The two who remain at large are expected to surrender, according to Rosen.