Union members, activists defiant in the face of federal surveillance

“The (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and Border Patrol agents who murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti have been hidden away and protected, while DHS turns its attention towards spying on union members, civil rights organizations, churches and individuals who stood up for their community in whatever ways they were able,” said Gabriel Van De Water, an artist and community organizer who was among the 15 people indicted in June.

As part of its surveillance operation during Operation Metro Surge, Homeland Security agents secretly obtained financial records from organizations, including the labor unions Service Employees International Union and Communications Workers of America; Voices for Racial Justice, a longstanding racial justice training organization; and Sunrise Movement, an environmental justice organization. Undercover agents attended meetings of anti-ICE organizers as they planned protests, including the Jan. 23 general strike and march, and food distribution for immigrants who were in hiding. 

The tactics were revealed by a defense attorney representing one of the 15 defendants in federal court documents last week. Filings included reports filed by undercover agents, copies of subpoenas and descriptions of messages on the encrypted messaging app Signal.

“These shams of political investigations — these are just acts of retribution and intimidation,” said Rev. Jennifer Crow, senior minister of the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis, one of the churches where undercover agents infiltrated a meeting. 

The speakers gathered outside the Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis, and called on Target and other Minnesota-based corporations to use their political power to demand accountability for federal agents’ actions during Operation Metro Surge.

“Every single corporation that claims to be here for the right reasons is going to have to show it through,” said Marcia Howard, president of Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59. 

ICE and Target did not immediately respond to the Reformer’s emailed questions.

The Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59 is one of nearly 20 organizations accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of forming part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to impede and assault federal agents. A diagram presented to the grand jury as part of the indictments shows the teachers’ union alongside several other unions, the ICE-tracking group Monarca, Democratic Socialists of America and “Left Jab,” a community martial arts group, among others.

Labor leaders and union members said their solidarity with their immigrant members, and with each other, was indispensable as they worked together to defend immigrants from ICE during Operation Metro Surge.

Howard said she’s proud to be affiliated with other institutions that stood up to the swarm of federal agents in Minnesota this winter. 

“Kinda chic to be on that list,” she said.