Minneapolis Activists Used Encrypted Group Chats To Outmaneuver ICE. Now the Feds Want To Prosecute Them.

On the morning federal immigration agents shot Alex Pretti in the back, Emmanuel Mauleón, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, was standing on a ladder outside his house, pulling down holiday decorations. That's when his phone started buzzing.

Pretti's death would quickly become a national news story. Coming soon after the killing of Renée Good, this was the second time in less than a month that the federal agents swarming Minneapolis had gunned down an American citizen in the street. The outcry forced the Trump administration to reassess its aggressive deportation tactics, prompted a reshuffling of officials overseeing those efforts, and led to congressional hearings and investigations that are ongoing.

Before footage of Pretti's death spread across social media and news outlets around the world, many residents of the Twin Cities learned what happened the same way Mauleón did: via urgent pings on their phones.

For weeks, a sprawling, informal network of group chats—largely using the encrypted messaging app Signal—had been a vital part of the public response to what the Trump administration called "Operation Metro Surge." The operation deployed thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and other federal law enforcement personnel, tasked with apprehending and deporting undocumented immigrants. Their tactics were blunt and aggressive, as they disregarded warrant requirements and drew allegations of racial profiling and unlawful arrests. … [Subscribe to continue reading]