Fifteen people from the Twin Cities are facing federal felony charges for organizing protests against immigration enforcement. They stand accused of conspiring to impede federal officers — not for violence, but for coordinating meetings, sharing messages in a group chat, monitoring ICE activity, and raising money.

The protests were a direct response to "Operation Metro Surge," a monthslong flood of up to 3,000 federal immigration agents into Minnesota that upended communities across the state, separated families, killed two U.S. citizens, and drew widespread condemnation from residents, clergy, and civil rights leaders.

The 94-page federal indictment lists a speaking tour and a blog article as evidence of criminal conspiracy. Not one defendant has been specifically identified as throwing anything or physically harming anyone.

"This is the type of stuff that gets prosecuted as misdemeanors in state court, not as federal felonies," said Bruce Nestor, a lawyer who defended protesters charged in earlier rounds of this same enforcement push, according to MPR News. "This is not about law enforcement. This is an act of political repression. It's designed to punish and intimidate."

The federal government's track record in these cases raises serious questions. Of the 36 people charged last winter in connection with the same immigration surge, half of those cases have since been dropped — including some that can never be refiled. A federal magistrate called one of those earlier charging documents a "false affidavit."

Now prosecutors are escalating: filing more serious charges, against more people, while pointing to no specific acts of violence in the new indictment.

Organizing a protest. Sending messages in a group chat. Writing an article. Going on a speaking tour. These are not crimes. They are how people participate in democracy.

We call on the U.S. Department of Justice to drop these charges immediately.