Fifteen Minnesota residents are facing a federal conspiracy charge in a case that, according to records reviewed by the publication, may expose a broader and potentially unconstitutional Immigration and Customs Enforcement surveillance campaign targeting left-wing social movements in Minnesota and elsewhere.
The high-profile indictment of the Minnesota 15 portrays the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), bolstered by federal funding and newly hired employees, as President Donald Trump’s primary instrument against political opponents. It alleges that powerful post-9/11 law-enforcement agencies were deployed against Americans organizing in their communities.
Records reveal extensive surveillance effort
Experts said an operation of this magnitude has not been seen in the United States since the federal counterinsurgency campaigns targeting the New Left and anti-war protests during the 1960s and 1970s.
Discovery records in the cases include dozens of reports, audio transcripts, emails, intercepted Signal chats, photographs, database queries and other materials. Together, they offer an inside look at domestic-terrorism investigations conducted under Project Whipple Shield and Operation Puppet Master, which were authorized by the controversial National Security Presidential Memorandum 7.
Issued after the assassination of Charlie Kirk last September, NSPM 7 directs federal law-enforcement agencies to use all available means against organizations and individuals who criticize the administration’s policies and promote what it calls “anti-Christian” ideas. The full scope of the investigation authorized under the memorandum remains unclear.
Attorneys for the Minnesota 15 say the charges are part of a broader national surveillance effort aimed at opponents of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. One attorney directly compared the DHS campaign with the FBI’s Counterintelligence Operations Program, or COINTELPRO, which unconstitutionally surveilled, infiltrated and intimidated racial-justice, civil-rights and anti-war movements from the 1950s through the early 1970s.
Three former law-enforcement officials who reviewed the filing told WIRED that the case was almost certainly part of a wider intelligence-gathering operation that began well before the administration sent federal forces into Minnesota in December 2025.
HSI operations and investigative tools
Competing motions in lawsuits concerning access to DHS surveillance records indicate that officials in Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), one of ICE’s two components, repurposed funding mechanisms and investigative tools originally intended to address serious crimes. The attorneys argue that those resources were used to target domestic political opponents.
Operation Keyhole, the HSI sting program that financed the prosecution of the Minnesota 15, dates to 2008. As of June 2026, the organization had six active sting operations in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area.
More than 120 HSI officers were assigned to the case, including personnel drawn from specialized units around the country that have played a central role in the government’s militarized immigration-enforcement efforts. The deployment included 11 undercover officers.
Investigators used highly invasive surveillance methods, including Reaper drones and tools authorized under the Patriot Act that are normally reserved for money-laundering and terrorism investigations. An undercover investigator also entered a church. The article states that this clearly violated a court order.
Federal conspiracy charge records are central to the ongoing legal disputes over the surveillance programs and the government’s conduct.
Source: www.wired.com
