Chicago-Area Police Helped Immigration Agency Surveil Anti-ICE Activists

Law enforcement officers from the Chicago area took part last spring in an undercover investigation run by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into mutual aid networks in Minneapolis. It forms part of the federal case against 15 Twin Cities activists charged with felonies for resisting the immigration operation known as Metro Surge. The details come from newly released documents reviewed by WIRED. The activists' defense team made them public as part of the case, while critics argue the prosecution crosses into political repression.

What the report shows

An April report by ICE's investigations arm, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), titled "Antifa Roadshow," describes in-person and electronic surveillance of an April 2 talk. Self-described anarchists from Minnesota spoke there about organizing during the three-month immigration surge, in which two US citizens were killed.

The surveillance was carried out by a joint task force of six local officers and eight HSI Chicago agents, with personnel from Chicago, Aurora, Downers Grove, Cook County and Kane County. It used two undercover agents, audio recordings, license-plate-reader data and Chicago's surveillance cameras to identify attendees and link them to other anti-ICE protests. The event took place at Co-Prosperity, a left-wing gallery in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, as part of a national tour organized by the anarchist collective Crimethinc.

Surveillance staff logged 219 vehicles near the venue and identified several people already under investigation. The information was passed to HSI in St. Paul, Minnesota. Remarks by defendant Callum Robinet from the event are included in the indictment.

Reactions

The Chicago Police Department says its work with HSI is allowed under Illinois law because it concerned criminal rather than immigration enforcement, and that no First Amendment notifications were made to its leadership. Ed Yohnka of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois called the surveillance "very troubling" and urged local agencies to give a full accounting. ICE neither confirmed nor denied details of the investigations.