Attorney for Minnesota anti-ICE protesters charged with conspiracy believes feds may have used informant

Federal officers arrested two more anti-ICE protesters Wednesday in the Twin Cities, with both going before a judge in St. Paul federal court hours later.

Wednesday's arrests were part of the 15 charged Tuesday with impeding the work of immigration agents during and after Operation Metro Surge.

One of the people arrested Tuesday is Erik Davis, professor and chair of Macalester College's religious studies department.

A judge rejected prosecutors' request that the defendants post a cash bail before being released. All are barred from contacting each other and from protesting on federal property.

The 94-page federal indictment mentions Davis at group meetings and messaging some of the other people charged.

"He's chair of his department, and he was, he was acting as, acting his conscience here," said defense attorney Jordan Kushner. "The only thing he's accused of in the indictment is participating in meetings."

Kushner believes the federal government may have had a plant inside some of the protest groups including the Direct Action Network and the Black Cat Workers Collective. Their Facebook logo features an image of the Minneapolis Police Third Precinct building burning in 2020 amid the unrest following George Floyd's murder.

"They probably had an informant or an undercover agent who probably recorded the conversations and recorded the private email, private messaging through Signal chats," Kushner said. "And you know, it's disturbing that the government is putting its resources into spying on political activists."

Kushner and other defense attorneys say the indictment has little detail of protesters actively carrying out violent acts. Constitutional law professor David Schultz, who has no ties to the case, agrees.

"These are the types of actions that might at best warrant misdemeanor prosecution, maybe in local court. But to charge at felony-level conspiracy to obstruct government action, at least on the face of it, looks like an overreach," Schultz said.

No future court dates have been set. There have previously been other protesters charged for their actions during and after Operation Metro Surge. Some of those cases have been dismissed, while others are still active

Macalester College declined WCCO's request for comment.

Organizers believe recent indictments meant to discourage protest

Community organizations involved in anti-ICE demonstrations are criticizing new federal indictments against 15 protesters. They argue the charges are intended to discourage public protest and shift attention away from concerns about federal immigration enforcement.

Organizers say protesters exercised their constitutional rights by monitoring federal operations, documenting interactions and alerting neighbors when immigration agents were present.

Minnesotans marched in difficult winter conditions, carried whistles and recorded the activity they observed in their communities.

"We were exercising our constitutional rights and looking out for our neighbors and keeping them safe," said Elianne Farhat of TakeAction Minnesota.

Emilia González Avalos, executive director of UNIDOS MN, said the government's account does not reflect what she witnessed during the protests/marches.

"It is clear where the mass violence came from," González Avalos said. "I think this is an attempt to shift guilt, to shift the narrative, because thousands of constitutional observers and thousands of Minnesotans have a lot of evidence that the violence did not come from regular people here."

Unidos MN says it has helped train more than 50,000 constitutional observers since last year.