"The Point Is to Spread Fear": DOJ Charges 15 with Conspiracy for Anti-ICE Protests in Minnesota

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN : We begin today’s show in Minnesota, where federal prosecutors have announced criminal charges against 15 people in connection with anti- ICE protests in the Twin Cities earlier this year. The defendants are accused of, quote, “conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers,” unquote, during Trump’s so-called Operation Metro Surge, which saw the deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents to Minnesota. Two U.S. citizens were killed by agents in the crackdown: Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the VA nurse.

The federal indictment names two organizations: Direct Action Minnesota and the Black Cat Worker’s Collective, which federal prosecutors have accused, without evidence, of having links to anti-fascist, or “antifa,” groups. Last fall, President Trump categorized antifa as a “domestic terror organization” even though antifa is not an actual group.

Protests took place Tuesday outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul after the charges were announced. U.S. Marshals responded by deploying pepper spray and aerosol grenades.

This is civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, who’s facing federal charges herself over an anti- ICE church protest in January.

NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG : With the 15 people who were arrested this morning for standing up, we have to continue to stand up for them. They put their necks on the lines. They put their bodies on the lines. They put their jobs on the line to stand up for freedom, justice and equality. We need to be standing up for them. We need to be standing up for the Righteous 39. And we need to be standing up for the hundreds of other people still facing state and federal charges for standing up against fascism and authoritarianism.

AMY GOODMAN : That was civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was arrested earlier this year for participating in an anti- ICE demonstration at Cities Church in St. Paul, where one of the pastors worked for ICE .

For more, we go to Minneapolis, where we’re joined by Bruce Nestor, past president of the National Lawyers Guild and a criminal defense and immigration attorney. He represents one of the 15 defendants.

Bruce, thanks so much for joining us. Can you explain these charges? And did they come as a surprise to you?

BRUCE NESTOR : Good morning, Amy.

These charges really did not come as a surprise. Here in Minnesota, we stand up and support people that stood up to ICE , as Nekima Levy Armstrong said. They were, you know, fighting for justice and democracy and opposing this brutal invasion. And so, the fact that the U.S. Attorney’s Office is trying to bring new charges against these individuals is not a surprise. It’s part of their attempt to reframe a narrative and to claim that the federal agents were performing lawful functions and under attack, when everything we saw on the ground was different. And so, whether people were monitoring ICE , documenting, photographing, following, blowing whistles or, quite frankly, even impeding ICE , we stand in their corner, and we support them here in Minnesota, because they were here protecting our community.

AMY GOODMAN : So, tell us about your own client, one of 15. And what does it mean to be charged with conspiracy? And the fact that the Trump administration has put antifa — not a clear group, though they call it one — on the terrorist list, what does it mean to say that these people represent antifa organizations?

BRUCE NESTOR : All 15 of the defendants are members of the community, active in mutual aid, union members, workers, neighbors, people who are, many of them, well known. My particular client is a special education teacher. And all of them were involved in activities to try to respond to this federal invasion.

What we’re seeing is this attempt, from this national security memorandum last September, is to try to break off and isolate groups of people by labeling them domestic terrorists, by labeling them antifa, and trying to allow federal government to target and repress certain groups of people based on these allegations. And one of the ways to do that is with this conspiracy charge. Conspiracy is a prosecutor’s tool that allows them to try to hold everybody in a group accountable for what they claim a certain individual may have done. And what we see in this 94-page indictment is these references to speaking tours that people went on, describing what they were seeing in Minnesota. One individual is charged with stalking just for following an ICE agent, with no threats, no other behavior, just following an ICE agent. So, the conspiracy is really an attempt to broaden the net of federal law enforcement and to expand the ability of the federal government to target our movement and to foster repression.

AMY GOODMAN : So, let’s be clear: These 15 people have been charged, but the people who were responsible for the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have not been charged, and the fede…