If you were a normie during the Twin Cities oh-so-relentlessly celebrated ICE protests last winter, you could tell by simple observation that while there was some legitimate criticism of federal tactics (legitimate enough to lead to the dismissal, eventually, of Kristi Noem) and plenty of organic inchoate anger (Minneapolis, Saint Paul and the Twin Cities are chock full of people with main character syndrome that love to larp as "radicals"), they were about as spontaneous as an Oscar Award telecast.
U-Hauls full of pre-printed signs don't just show up, day after day - and even that is more likely than the spontaneous eruption of a highly sophisticated intelligence network to track agents and make sure protesters "spontaneously" showed up at the right place and the right time with the signs and the chants and enough noisemakers to make the lucky neighborhood sound like a Chuck E. Cheese hosting a couple of birthdays.
The protesters weren't getting paid.
But the people facilitating them were. They had to be.
And at long last, the Feds are on the case:
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota are set to announce charges allegedly tied to two Minneapolis-based antifa groups. https://t.co/QIffYS1qDt
— KSTP (@KSTP) June 16, 2026
The Justice Department has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday morning in Minneapolis to announce charges stemming from opposition to federal immigration enforcement.
The charges are being filed against multiple people “for conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers,” and for efforts to allegedly “violently oppose immigration law enforcement,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.
Further details on who’s being charged, and exactly what they’re accused of, were not immediately available.
Word started bubbling around Twin Cities radical and protest-adjacent social media accounts of raids taking place, with urgent warnings not to "don't open your doors" without a warrant. There was apparently something to the warnings:
The Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said Tuesday that 15 people had been charged over allegedly impeding federal agents, as well as stalking, assault, and threatening officers. So far, 12 of the 15 individuals are in custody, the attorney said.
The charges, in a federal indictment now unsealed, came as part of Joint Taskforce Vanguard, a Trump administration program started as part of efforts to tackle political violence, Rosen said.
"These defendants have been charged not for what they said, but for what they did," Rosen told reporters Tuesday. "They all joined an agreement, a conspiracy to interfere with lawful immigration enforcement operations."
The U.S. Attorney went on to show social media posts from defendants from earlier this year, which he said showed their connection to Antifa.
"Antifa" is, of course, an activist, sometimes paramilitary group that traces its intellectual and ideological roots back to the German Communist Party's analog to the Brownshirts - same mission, different accessories and (slightly) different rhetoric. There are allegations that they were heavily involved in the 2020 riots around the country, particularly the riots in the Twin Cities. The Trump Administration designated them a terrorist group not long after the inauguration, promising investigations appropriate to that status.
The Feds' news conference Tuesday morning shows the investigations are moving forward fast:
Live updates: Department of Homeland Security agents have arrested 12 of the 15 defendants, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said. One is in custody on other federal charges. Two are at large. https://t.co/RqMcj0KNJ1
— The Minnesota Star Tribune (@StarTribune) June 16, 2026
By the way, their defenders tell us, the group ack-shyu-ally doesn't exist:
However, critics of the designation have pointed out that there is no single organization called Antifa. Rather, Antifa just stands for "anti-fascist" and the term is usually just used as an umbrella term for a number of far-left militant groups
That same description applies equally well to Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Ku Klux Klan, for that matter.
We'll be watching this going forward.
