Guardian - "US conducted ‘mass spying campaign’ against leftwing groups and anti-ICE protesters, records reveal DHS sent undercover agents to meetings and infiltrated chats of groups opposing Trump’s immigration crackdown"

 Link for the headlined item: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/us-government-spied-anti-ice-protesters -- stating in part:

 Newly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year.

Internal investigative reports show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent undercover agents to community meetings in the Twin Cities and New York City, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained financial records of mainstream unions and left-leaning non-profit groups.

Nearly 30 internal law enforcement reports were released on Thursday as part of a criminal case the Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed against 15 Minneapolis protesters. The defendants are accused of a “conspiracy” to “impede” US immigration officers during the Trump administration’s surge in the region.

The DHS investigative reports were disclosed by the government and submitted to the court by an attorney for one of the defendants. The records show that in January, DHS launched an inquiry called “Operation Puppet Master” to identify a “network of conspirators” organizing against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The operation came as community organizing against ICE was swelling in the region in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

A DHS report from February said the agency was looking into people who were “providing material support to violent opportunists and agitators”. The records suggest agents launched elaborate spying efforts targeting activists, protesters and mainstream progressive organizations opposing the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

“I was shocked at the scope and the apparent lack of investigative discipline involved, but not totally surprised,” said Kevin Riach, an attorney for one of the indicted protesters, who filed the tranche of records in federal court.

DHS spokespeople did not respond to inquiries and the DoJ declined to comment.

EmptyWheel has an excellent post linking to NYT coverage where it appears a courtesy paywall bypass enables reading the full NYT item. IN EFFECT - spying on people doing nothing illegal. Forming dossiers. Using facial recognition software on protest photos,. Just pure crap. Because we can do it we are the federal U.S. of A., and under Trump we are limitless in how we try to stiffle exerxcise of peoples' rights. 

The remainder of the Guardian coverage, and the full NYT item linked to by EmptyWheel provide great detail. AP also reports. The more you read the more awful it gets. "Grotesque" is an understatement. Our fucking government being in super-fascist spying-on-the-people mode, with a chilling story within that story, that being how fascistic things have gotten under the current federal people now driving the car, in light of how fascism played out into the mass death and suffering of the Second World War. 

Germany then. Us now.

It is worse, far worse, than Flock camera license plate tracking. A part of the same story, but worse.

_______________UPDATE_____________

Facists are as they say and do. Praise of fascism is fascism. That said, from Tom Emmer's House site: 

Metro Surge announcement

Thursday, February 12, 2026

WASHINGTON – House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) released the following statement in response to Border Czar Tom Homan announcing the conclusion of the immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities.

Whip Emmer: “Job well done, Tom Homan. Local law enforcement is now cooperating with federal law enforcement in Tim Walz's Minnesota, thanks to President Trump's leadership. We are hopeful that this partnership will continue—without local or state interference—to ensure the worst of the worst are being removed from our communities.” 

Jesus Christ Tom, as the one man said, "The boots you lick will also stomp you too . . ." 

Stupid. Get a brain, Emmer. It would help you vastly.

==========================

I from time to time have noted how Doug Chapin is wise and a gentleman with widespread experience.

An email from him to a supporter, forwarded to me, noted:

Tom Emmer went on Fox and claimed Minnesotans are calling to thank Donald Trump for what ICE did here. His words: "please thank Donald Trump for trying to keep us safe and trying to get these illegals out."

I need to respond to that directly.

========================================== 

Chapin's campaigning will bring him to Ramsey today, and he may have comments. Surely there will be a press release from him soon. Or a televised interview. Not strident. But lethal.

[Readers may view the Emmer spiel via an embedded video Breitbart (speaking of fascist) posted here.] 

That slimeball has not dared to show up in person in Minnesota holding a current Townhall saying that stuff, and facing crowd reaction. 

Do you blame him? When what you say digs the hole deeper, keep quiet seems to be the wisdom Emmer is missing. That and touting that Trump likes his subservience. So?

The man is simply going off the deep-end of Trumpist disrespect of truth. (Ask him who won the 2020 election.)

THE TOTALITY -- Emmer, Breitbart, Trump, a lost super expensive war, and Hegseth questioining troop testesterone levels. Not only all that, but rampant inflation clearly happening in every town and city food market, while pump price shock staggers everyone but Musk, who must love it because he's selling electric autos and trucks -- the entire smelling quagmier of households trying to make ends meet, then a medical debt event and its all down the tubes. It rots and rots, into worse and worse.. 

And Emmer likes it. Really. Read his lips. Great, couldn't be stronger. 

He lies like Trump does. The Socerer's Apprentice has his mop gone amok. 

Get him out! Give us rescue.

November cannot come soon enough!

But we know -- November is coming, and Emmer will be leaving. Trust me. He's going desperate, into lies and untruths. And spouting fascist mythology, like his mentor.

_________________FURTHER UPDATE________________

Tom, put away love of Brietbart for a moment, and read your online local daily:

Duh!
 

 

There are other districts besides the one squatted on by Emmer, MN6, where I live. This post - a look further north, MN8.

The primary yielded a winner, both parties. The incumbent Republican, no surprise. 

The Democrat? Have a look: at primaery election results.   

Those are numbers to weigh, as to challenger chances against the incumbent.

The DFL candidate's campaign website starts with a video, and tells you how you can donate. Bread and butter issue priorities, vs corporate representation by the incumbent, in thrall to sulfide mining interests and such. Closer to Emmer than to people of the district.

She wins, that's one more vote for the House good guys. 

 

 

Emmer is going to have to hold townhalls. In the Republican primary the party's resistence vote against him and the status quo was 20%.

 

Those numbers speak for themselves. He has no choice. He has to rally beyond mailer items. He has to face dissatisfaction directly. In person. With candor. If he can. It's been his district. So it is his to lose. 20% of Republican voters are unlocked, going into the stretch run. Being party whip holds more gravitas to people in DC. He has to come in district and do politics, with a war that's unpopular and inflation that's rampant and unpopular. His seat at risk, means his duty of self-interest is to visit and convince.

 

Two old but bright conservative establishment Dems, talking. They are a voice to be heard, agree or disagree. They slant a view as others do, toward their belief set. Gillibrand and Schumer would not be uncomfortable in a room with the two of them.

 Do not take this as a Crabgrass agreement. It is Crabgrass looking beyond the belief system here.

Carville and Hunt. After the primaries earlier this month. Including in Minnesota. Here. 

 

Try web search = flock camera resentment and citizen countermeasures -- So, if you're pissed off about the surveillance state, sit back, you don't have to go out, but use your vote against things worse than Flock camera poles.

That search returned for Crabgrass: 

https://truthout.org/articles/the-nationwide-resistance-against-flock-surveillance-cameras-is-gaining-steam/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2026/08/08/flock-camera-vandalism-controversy/91194591007/

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/30/us/flock-camera-vandalism-protests-cec 

The point is, many are bothered by a sense of freedom of movement and association being quelled by an over-purposed surveillance state mentality among those of us who govern us. The Deep State, as called by those resenting it.

So, use the vote. Vote against ICE and Border Patrol who did worse than put up cameras to watch everyone. They targeted those they did not like, or who did not like them. 

minnesotareformer.com: 

Documents show how feds spied on protesters, left-wing organizations and unions during Metro Surge

Homeland Security agents were undercover at meetings, used AI to compile dossiers on protesters and logged vehicle information

By Madison McVan - August 13, 2026

Homeland Security investigators secretly recorded conversations, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained financial records for labor unions and progressive groups as part of a wide-ranging surveillance effort during Operation Metro Surge, according to court documents filed Thursday morning. 

The documents, first reported by The New York Times, were filed by defense attorneys in the federal case against 15 Minnesotans accused of conspiracy to impede or injure a federal agent.

That's not merely watching, that's trying to get criminal convictions for protected rights being exercised (and observed - "spied upon" in direct terms). 

The feds’ surveillance programs, dubbed “Operation Puppet Master” and “Operation Whipple Shield,” go far beyond the 15 people indicted. 

Homeland Security agents used administrative subpoenas — subpoenas issued by the federal agency rather than a judge — to obtain 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 that organized noise protests outside of immigration agents’ hotels during Operation Metro Surge.

“This broad collection of financial records of labor and social justice advocacy organizations, done in secret and with no articulable criminal predicate, violates both the First Amendment and these organizations’ right to financial privacy,” the attorneys wrote.

[...] 

Agents collected the license plate numbers of attendees during a meeting of anti-ICE protesters at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Roseville to obtain the names of the attendees. The agents then compiled a dossier including attendees’ names, photos, addresses, vehicle registrations, family and employment information.

The feds also used Clearview AI, a facial recognition software, to compile photo dossiers of activists and protesters, including many who were not charged. 

A diagram shown to the grand jury during the indictment process linked a number of organizations to the conspiracy — centered around an organization called “Direct Action MN” — with no evidence, according to the defense attorneys. The organizations include SEIU, the AFL-CIO, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators, Monarca, Democratic Socialists of America and Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, the labor union representing state workers. 

It's not just reading your license plate numbers passively, to be able to link your driving where and when to possibly speculating about why and what's possible to do about it. It is active government boot on particularized throats, aimed with a purpose - well beyond randomly positioned camera poles.

And it got taken to court. Your Flock travel itinerary will seldom if ever be taken to a court. This other stuff was targeted and for that very purpose. It was not a thing of "a few cameras, why not" but rather:

A memorandum issued by President Donald Trump in September directed the U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security to investigate “all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them.” It also expanded the definition of “domestic terrorism” to include crimes like revealing personal details of federal agents or getting in the way of immigration enforcement. 

 Specific targeting for believing Stephen Miller an asshole and going outside the home to watch abuse of your neighbors by masked men patroling around in unmarked cars dressed up in riot gear. 

And you're more intrigued by choping down a license plate camera? Get real.

Nobody's been shot dead by a Flock camera. These creeps, that's a different story. 

Get your head right on priorities. It matters. Use your vote. 

   

 

Minnesotareformer.com in an op--ed suggests Klobuchar should disclose who she'd appoint to her Senate seat if she wins the governor contest. Going a step further, Crabgrass tells her who she should and should not appoint.

 https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/08/13/sen-amy-klobuchar-needs-to-tell-us-who-she-might-name-as-her-successor-if-she-becomes-governor/

 Possible good appointments, Kieth Ellison, Ilhen Omar, Betty McCollum, come to mind. Each would be good re the Boundary Waters and mining, and each would be a progressive upgrade. More specifically, should Doug Chapin lose in MN6 to Emmer reelected, he'd be the ideal candidate, already willing to serve in DC, and not vacating any other office to chance. He's choice one, unless he unseats Emmer.

Who not to appoint? Angie Craig. She is too much like Amy in being a very conservative Democrat, and she's taken AIPAC money, as has Amy and Emmer, and it would look too much like Amy appointimg a clone.

Chapin would be an excellent alternative to Craig, where everybody in the DFL will be thinking "It's Angie's turn," which is too akin to how Trump won his first term. Defective thought.

It's nobody's"turn" and the choice should be based entirely upon best and most likely to excel, with the DFL committed at least in words, to gender balance in the ranks and the offices.

Yes, Angie may have her expectations. But nobody should expect iron-clad guarantees. They are not best.

And Amy will win. However conservative she is, she will win. Progressives will bite the bullet and vote for her, because they have no option. Amy, has an option. and it should be Doug Chapin. Unless * * *

UPDATE: In terms of no choice for progressives but Amy, it is noteworthy that neither Tafoya nor Demuth will even admit that Biden won in 2020. That reminder of how backward the Republican candidates are has to be made. Neither of those two is pressing for the Renee and Alex murders to be prosecuted. Neither speaks to the War. Trump's inflation. They are pathetic.

Pete. Maximize your lethality.

 https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hu5o_XqxDU0   "The High-T Department of War."

See, also: https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4546628/statement-by-chief-pentagon-spokesman-sean-parnell-on-enhanced-screening-protoc/ 

That second link explains Hegseth's program for "Enhanced Screening Protocol to Optimize Warfighter Performance and Enhance Force Readiness". Rutting soldiers make good fighters.