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.

In response, those decentralized Signal chats turned ordinary Minnesotans into modern-day Paul Reveres. Participants shared information about ICE activity, warned businesses of potential raids, helped track agents and vehicles across the city, and organized legal assistance for detainees.

…

Those same chats now sit at the center of another story. In a 94-page [indictment](https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1446251/dl?inline) filed in June, the Department of Justice (DOJ) accused 15 protesters of participating in a conspiracy to interrupt federal immigration enforcement and law enforcement operations. That alleged conspiracy was coordinated via “social media, text messaging, and encrypted messaging applications, such as Signal,” the indictment explains, “with the goal of preventing, hindering, delaying, and impeding the enforcement of federal immigration law.” The defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Has the Trump administration finally brought antifa to justice? In [a statement](https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/06/trump-administration-delivers-another-crushing-blow-to-antifa-terrorist-network/), the White House called the indictment “a crushing blow” to the “domestic terrorist organization.”

Those who participated in or cheered on the protests against immigration enforcement during Operation Metro Surge are calling it something else: a worrying crackdown on Americans’ First Amendment rights to talk and organize with their neighbors, friends, and co-workers against the federal government’s violent behavior.