Tag: minnesota

Who Is Funding and Organizing the Minnesota Riots?

As anti-ICE riots escalate in Minneapolis, the activist group Defend 612 has mobilized tens of thousands of supporters through encrypted communication networks to disrupt federal operations. An investigation into the group reveals a complex funding structure linking Defend 612 to liberal foundations, shell entities, politicians, and third-party organizations, some of which ultimately trace back to billionaire George Soros.

Defend 612 is a Minneapolis-based activist group that provides anti-ICE “know your rights” training, organizes and supports protests, and maintains a decentralized rapid-response network designed to interfere with ICE enforcement in real time. Its tactics include sending alerts through encrypted Signal chats, following ICE vehicles, swarming enforcement sites with observers and protesters, and whistle-blowing to warn potential targets.

On its website, Defend 612 claims that since the government launched “Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities, “Somali, Latinx, and immigrant communities have faced relentless harassment, intimidation, abduction, detention, and deportation.” The group’s use of the term “abduction” rather than “arrest” reflects standard activist framing.

While Defend 612 does not argue that those targeted are legally present, it nonetheless seeks to shield illegal aliens from arrest and deportation, opposing the core function of immigration enforcement.

Defend 612 operates under fiscal sponsorship by Cooperation Cannon River (CCR), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Northfield, Minnesota (EIN: 82-0852275). Under this arrangement, CCR handles donations, financial management, and tax-exempt status on Defend 612’s behalf, allowing the group to operate without incorporating independently. Defend 612’s website directs donations to CCR, which describes its mission as supporting “social and environmental justice” initiatives.

In January 2026, watchdog groups including the Center for American Security and Advocacy (CASA) and the Functional Government Initiative filed IRS complaints alleging that Defend 612’s activities may violate CCR’s tax-exempt status by promoting interference with federal agents and encouraging potentially illegal actions.

CCR reported revenue of approximately $249,000 in its most recent IRS Form 990 filing for fiscal year 2024, reflecting significant growth from earlier filings showing net income and net assets of $48,409 in 2020.

CCR’s funding comes primarily from general contributions and foundation grants. Public filings list no program service revenue, significant direct government funding, or investment income, though indirect federal and state funding appears to flow through the broader network.

In December 2023, The Solutions Project awarded $50,000 to CCR through its Fund for Frontline Power, as documented in Cause IQ records and reported by Alpha News. The Solutions Project, co-founded by actor Mark Ruffalo and led by Gloria Walton, supports climate justice organizations, often emphasizing groups led by women of color, immigrants, and Indigenous communities.

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Somali Member of Minnesota House of Representatives Uses Doctored Image of Alex Pretti in Memorial Tribute

Minnesota State Representative Mohamud Noor has come under fire for using what appears to be an AI-enhanced or filtered image of Alex Pretti, the armed man shot by a federal agent in Minneapolis over the weekend, in a social media memorial post.

The bizarrely altered photo appears to have been manipulated to make Pretti look more attractive.

Pretti, 37, was fatally shot after he engaged in a scuffle with federal agents who were in the middle of an immigration enforcement operation.

Noor, a Democrat who represents District 60B in the Minnesota House, posted a tribute to Pretti on X, writing:

“Words can’t describe our pain. Our hearts are broken, but our spirit is strong. Alex Pretti was killed standing for his neighbors. This has to stop. Our community deserves safety, transparency, and accountability. RIP Alex.”

However, the image he used bears absolutely no resemblance to the original. It appeared he used AI tools or heavy filters to “enhance” Pretti’s appearance, making him look more conventionally attractive by smoothing his skin, thickening his hair, and altering facial features.

Naturally, Noor was absolutely blasted in the replies and quote posts.

“Why are you guys trying to make him better looking through AI and filters? That’s actually twisted,” one user wrote.

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ICE Takes Out the Trash Tim Walz Ignored, 3,400 Murderers, Rapists, and Gangsters Removed

An ICE official said federal agents are carrying out an ongoing operation in Minnesota focused on arresting dangerous criminal illegal aliens to prevent further harm to local communities, pushing back against what he described as efforts by politicians, activists, and the media to create fear and confusion.

Marcos Charles said the operation is centered on public safety and removing individuals with serious criminal histories from Minnesota communities.

He criticized what he described as deliberate chaos driven by sanctuary politicians and activists, arguing that it undermines community trust and obscures the purpose of enforcement actions.

“When sanctuary politicians, activists and the media work hard to create chaos and fear instead of using their platforms to reassure their communities, this is the result,” Charles said.

Charles said the goal of the operation is straightforward: arrest criminal illegal aliens so they cannot continue to victimize innocent people.

He said the effort has been ongoing throughout the week and has already resulted in thousands of arrests statewide.

“The reality is, and this is what commander Bovino and I have been talking about all week. All week, we’re out here to arrest dangerous criminal illegal aliens so they can’t victimize innocent people in our communities anymore,” Charles said.

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Rioter Arrested After Laying Traps to Disable ICE Vehicles

The Department of Homeland Security has announced the arrest of an anti-ICE agitator who was reportedly using caltrops to deflate federal vehicles.

The individual was apparently detained after obstructing law enforcement by employing homemade tire deflating devices. The objects were constructed using hose and large screws. Officials found a bag full of the devices in the individual’s possession during the arrest.

One individual online reported that MS Now briefly showed some of the caltrops in the roadway, but quickly cut away without mention.

Independent reporter Andy Ngo, who has widely covered riots in far-left cities, claimed on X that this move was ripped directly from the Antifa playbook.

“The rioters in Minnesota are using the Antifa tactics from 2020,” Ngo said on X. “Antifa distribute[d] guides on making these sharp nail devices. They were regularly thrown across streets in Portland to slow down [Portland police].

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The Left Doesn’t Want You to Know This About Alex Pretti, the Man the Border Patrol Shot

When Renee Good drove her car into an ICE agent earlier this month, the left tried to gaslight us into believing she was just some innocent bystander who was just at the wrong place, that she’d just dropped her son off at school and wasn’t supposed to be there. That narrative fell apart fast. Good, we soon learned, was a trained anti-ICE agitator who was absolutely there to obstruct law enforcement. Now we’re watching the same playbook unfold with 37-year-old Alex Pretti, the armed agitator shot dead by Border Patrol agents on Saturday in Minneapolis while confronting agents.

The talking points are already circulating. Social media posts from the left keep hammering on Pretti’s job as an ICU nurse, as if that somehow proves he was there with pure intentions. They are gaslighting you because they want you to believe federal agents gunned down a selfless healthcare worker for no reason.

That is not the case.

We already knew that Pretti was carrying a loaded handgun and two extra loaded magazines when he showed up at an active ICE operation targeting a violent criminal illegal immigrant. And like Good before him, Pretti wasn’t some random citizen. He was part of an organized network dedicated to interfering with immigration enforcement.

And he brought a loaded gun.

Cam Higby from Newsmax spent days undercover inside the Signal messaging groups these activists use to coordinate their efforts. What he found was stunning in its sophistication. These aren’t just angry citizens showing up to protest. This is a well-oiled machine running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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Signal Chat Infiltrated by Conservative Journalist Reveals Democrat Politicians and Former Tim Walz Staffer Orchestrating Anti-ICE Protests and Doxxing of Agents

A leaked Signal group chat has exposed deep ties between Democrat officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and radical anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis.

The private messaging group, called “MN ICE Watch,” has allegedly been used to coordinate protests, issue marching orders, and even dox federal ICE agents during the ongoing protests and riots in Minneapolis.

Names of the group’s administrators were leaked after the group was infiltrated by conservative independent journalist Cam Higby and posted to X.

“I have infiltrated organizational signal groups all around Minneapolis with the sole intention of tracking down federal agents and impeding/assaulting/and obstructing them,” Higby wrote at the start of a lengthy thread of screenshots and videos from the chat.

One of the admins of the group is Amanda Noelle Koehler, a prominent protest organizer and former campaign strategist for Walz.

Koehler, who goes by the code name “HAH” in the chat, is listed as one of the group’s admins.

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The far-left network that helped put Alex Pretti in harm’s way, then made him a martyr

The skirmish that led to Saturday’s fatal shooting of an agitator by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis and the response that followed were driven by a complex network of far-left organizations with a wide range of causes, a Fox News Digital investigation found.

A coordinated web of encrypted chats, street alerts and tracking of ICE “Abductors” in a sophisticated database reviewed by Fox News Digital shows that agitators were already mobilized at the scene where 37-year-old Alex Pretti was killed minutes before any shots were fired. 

ICE and Border Patrol agents were there to arrest an illegal immigrant criminal, and Pretti and others were there, outside a donut shop, to meet them as part of a strategic pattern of organized interference with law enforcement operations.

Over the following hours, a national network of socialist, communist and Marxist-Leninist cells in the United States leveraged the tragic fatality into a nationwide protest operation. While grief and outrage over Pretti’s death is genuine, the network’s real-time rapid response, using short sensational video clips and emojis as weapons of propaganda, offers a window into the disciplined logistics, messaging and coordination of far-left warriors fomenting insurgency-like confrontation with authorities.

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Radical Anti-ICE Terrorists Are Now Threatening to Burn ICE Agents’ Families Alive

The director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s St. Paul Field Office said law enforcement has no issue with members of the public observing or recording their work, but warned that some protests have crossed from lawful assembly into behavior that interferes with operations and exposes officers and their families to violent threats.

Sam Olson addressed the balance between constitutional rights and officer safety while discussing recent protest activity directed at ICE operations in Minnesota.

Olson framed the issue around the First Amendment, drawing a distinction between peaceful assembly and actions that disrupt law enforcement duties.

“Time we spend here focusing on the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, but if we look to the First Amendment right, I think that the right, it doesn’t read the right to protest, right? It’s the right to peacefully assemble,” Olson said.

Olson said ICE personnel routinely encounter members of the public who observe, record, or speak with officers during enforcement actions, and that such conduct, by itself, is not a problem.

“And when we’re out there, we have no problem with, you know, the public watching what we do, filming what we do, talking to us while we do it,” he said.

According to Olson, the issue arises when individuals move beyond observation and enter operational areas or interfere with officers’ ability to carry out their duties.

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Barack Obama Urges More Street Protests, Blames Trump for Minneapolis Shooting

Former President Barack Obama is urging Americans to “support and draw inspiration” from the aggressive, Antifa-style provoke-blame-escalate street campaign in Minnesota against federal law enforcement that has led to the deaths of two Americans.

“Every American should support and draw inspiration from the wave of peaceful protests in Minneapolis,” Obama wrote in a statement Sunday.

Obama wrapped his call for nationwide action against the federal government in a tone of regret, and he portrayed the street protests as defensive measures against a tyrannical government:

The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

Federal law enforcement and immigration agents have a tough job, but Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and to work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety. That’s not what we’re seeing in Minnesota. In fact, we’re seeing the opposite.

Three paragraphs in, Obama’s tone shifts to emulate the far-left radicals — including Antifa. Those radicals — who are backed by many radical Democrats — are engaging in massive resistance and military-style obstruction of the lawful enforcement of popular federal laws, including both migration laws and laws against welfare fraud.

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All the videos that captured deadly federal agent shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti in Minneapolis

The fatal shooting of Minneapolis man Alex Jeffrey Pretti by a federal agent has plunged the city into fresh chaos.

Protesters flooded the streets shortly after the shooting on Saturday as several videos emerged showing his final moments.

Pretti, 37, was gunned down following an altercation with several federal agents just after 9am.

Initial video showed him being wrestled to the ground by officers near 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue before shots rang out.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that Pretti was armed with a gun containing two magazines. The agency stated that the Border Patrol agent who shot him was acting defensively. 

However, the narrative has been queried by other officials, including Governor Tim Walz following a review of the footage.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the person shot was a US citizen who had a license to carry a gun. So far footage does not appear to show him drawing any weapon although video from the ground is unclear.

A flurry of videos have since emerged as the community grapples the third shooting to involve federal agents in the city in a matter of weeks. 

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