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June 25, 2025
Hello wonderful community! Summer is here in the Northern Hemisphere and we hope this newsletter is reaching you in high spirits despite the trauma unfolding across the globe. Recently, Unicorn Riot has covered how new federal task forces in the Trump Administration are getting rolled out to arrest people and crack down on dissenters.
The “ICE Army” piece ([link removed]) was published May 29 and just days later on June 3, a “Homeland Security Task Force” led by ICE’s HSI division — one of the little known new policing systems we covered — stormed a Lake Street restaurant in Minneapolis ([link removed]) .
Thanks to your support we have been covering ICE-HSI (“Homeland Security Investigations”) for years — our 2018-2020 series #Icebreaker ([link removed]) includes the complete text of confidential law enforcement agent handbooks for undercover operations ([link removed]) , Special Response Teams ([link removed]) (like those seen on June 3) and much more.
** New ‘ICE Army’ on America’s Streets
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For his second term, Trump has dramatically ramped up arrests and immigration sweeps of people residing in the U.S., with new highly visible incidents and court cases unfolding every week. Under 287(g) agreements among state and local law enforcement agencies, joint operations with ICE could vastly scale up in many states — such raids have already happened this year in Florida, Tennessee and elsewhere. The “task force model” makes police available from local or state agencies to work as extensions of federal immigration police. This would make it vastly more likely for immigrants to get detained during routine law enforcement encounters, and massively expand how many local police could participate in federally-managed “sweep” operations.
Without using 287(g), ICE is still ramping up arrests and raids in California. This led to several days of uprisings against the federal agents and law enforcement in the streets of metro Los Angeles. An anti-ICE political movement leveraging protests and direct actions has picked up across the country. Echoing the Occupy ICE movement of seven years ago, encampments outside of federal buildings started in Seattle and Portland.
Read the report on the new federal task forces creating an ‘ICE army’ here ([link removed]) , including hard-to-find details about ICE database tracking systems and much more.
New Federal Task Forces Under 287(g) Could Form ‘ICE Army’ From National Guard, State, Local & College Police ([link removed])
** ICE-Led ‘Homeland Security Task Force’ Raid Draws Large Mobilization in Minneapolis
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On June 3, Minneapolis saw the rollout of a newly minted federal task force with dozens of federal agents performing a search warrant on a business on East Lake Street in South Minneapolis. The feds were quickly met with a raucous crowd of up to 200 people that grew through the day, at times blocking federal vehicles from vacating alleys and streets.
The community responded to the federal agents under the notion that an immigration raid was taking place. A community in which leaders had called a “sanctuary” for immigrants and had vowed — and so far failed — would be safe from federal authorities.
Federal agents responded violently by shooting pepper balls and unleashing pepper spray; personnel from the FBI and ICE Special Response Teams were filmed shoving people. Mobilized community members eventually pressured the federal agents out of the neighborhood, while Minneapolis police officers provided crowd control. See a short video below.
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Feds Raid In Minneapolis Causes Chaos [ Vimeo link ([link removed]) | YouTube link ([link removed]) ]
Directly after the violent, chaos-triggering raid, narrative wars began online and in the press. Local politicians bashed federal authorities, and then they all joined forces and bashed anyone with the assumption that the raid was an immigration raid. The mainstream press then amplified the push against community defense. Read the report at our website ([link removed]) .
ICE-Led ‘Homeland Security Task Force’ Raid Draws Large Mobilization in Minneapolis ([link removed])
** Plainclothes Feds Arrest Poet After Interview With Press, Unseal Conflated Complaint
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Plainclothes federal agents arrested 27-year-old Isabel Lopez on June 9 in St. Paul after she left an interview with journalist Georgia Fort about being assaulted by feds the week before, during the community defense against what was assumed to be an immigration raid.
Lopez was charged with allegedly assaulting agents and obstructing operations during a civil disorder — she was given an additional assault charge for allegedly punching an arresting agent in the head.
After her arrest, the feds unsealed her complaint and issued a public press release. In both, federal agents revealed new details of allegedly finding 900 pounds of methamphetamine in a Burnsville storage unit at some point in the past, mixing up allegations about the drug bust with Lopez’s charges. Many local corporate news platforms then conflated the stories, lumping Lopez into what would be state’s largest meth bust if true — no one had been charged with the alleged meth find at the time of reporting. Read the full report at our website. ([link removed])
Plainclothes Feds Arrest Poet After Interview With Press, Unseal Conflated Complaint ([link removed])
As we celebrate 10 years of independent, community-centered reporting, we need your support more than ever. The fight for the truth doesn’t stop — and neither can we. Donate today. ([link removed])
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Unicorn Riot, 2025. All media, unless otherwise noted, is licensed Creative Commons NonCommercial ShareAlike Attribution.
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