US Immigration Agents Caught Spying on Leftwing Activists

US Homeland Security agents have been engaged in a widespread spying operation this year against labour unions, a climate change group and socialist collectives, as well as other left-leaning organisations.

Operation Puppet Master, the first of two surveillance campaigns, began four days after intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was shot dead by ICE agents during January’s protests against Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants in Minneapolis, the New York Times reports.

In the aftermath of Pretti’s death, Homeland Security officials turned their attention to leftwing activists. Investigators were tasked with looking into funding to see if organisations had provided “violent opportunists and agitators” with resources for protests.

Undercover agents infiltrated events – including meetings held online and at churches, parks and libraries – to spy on protesters and organisers. Agents also went as far as summoning three years worth of financial records from some of its surveillance subjects, including environmental direct action group Sunrise Movement and the Communication Workers of America, a labour union. 

The Service Employees International Union, the largest union representing healthcare workers, also had three years of wire transfers investigated. The AFL-CIO, the largest union federation, the Democratic Socialists of America and Showing Up for Racial Justice were also investigated. 

None of the organisations has been charged with a crime, but the investigations have led to the prosecution of 15 people accused of conspiring to obstruct federal immigration officers.

Court filings reveal that the covert operations continued for months after the immigration crackdown in Minnesota had ended.

The investigations were made public after a defence lawyer representing one of the Minneapolis protesters facing criminal charges filed a request calling on the court to compel the government to hand their reports over as evidence.

Kevin Riach, the lawyer who filed the request, pointed to the “de-humanising terms” used by the Trump administration to describe leftwing organisers. “These wild conspiracy allegations are born from the fantasies of political retribution that animate the Trump administration,” Riach wrote in a court filing.  

“President Trump and senior administration officials routinely speak of the political left in de-humanising terms – as ‘deformed, ‘scarred,’ and ‘filled with ugliness,’ for example. The administration has crystallised these sentiments into policies that encourage and authorise political prosecutions like this one.”