Anti-Antifa with ICE | In the USA, a new secret police is emerging in front of everyone

ICE even borrows large drones from a partner agency to spy on political opponents from the air. The federal government is embracing the Trump administration. Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire After the deadly attack on far-right media activist Charlie Kirk, the Trump administration launched an unprecedented war against anti-fascist and anarchist leftists in September 2025. In a first major wave of repression, a federal court in Texas sentenced 16 defendants to a total of 556 years in prison last summer for protests in front of the ICE immigration agency's Prairieland deportation detention center. Until now, less has been known about how the authorities are implementing the National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7). It was also intended to take revenge for Kirk's death and combat "domestic terrorism and organized political violence." On the left, it hit the “Minnesota 15,” who wanted to hinder brutal ICE raids in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area and, according to the indictment, exchanged information in encrypted chat groups.

According to a report in Wired magazine on Wednesday, the investigation files reveal a surveillance apparatus of previously unknown extent. The investigation was carried out by the ICE sub-agency Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is actually responsible for drug trafficking and financial crime. 119 agents were assigned to the “Minnesota 15,” including at least eleven informants. For this purpose, HSI borrowed high-flying “Reaper” drones from the border protection agency CBP. Critical journalists were also investigated.

Many in the USA are now reminded of the FBI's secret surveillance and sabotage program Cointelpro, which was exposed in 1971. Its goal was to infiltrate and weaken political groups such as the civil rights movement, the Black Panther Party and the anti-war movement. Trump is now openly expanding ICE into a presidential deportation militia and also a secret police loyal to him.

It is disturbing that the federal government does not sharply criticize this obviously politically motivated action against left-wing opponents, but rather unnecessarily acts as a stirrup holder. The US government claims an international Antifa conspiracy and hosted a state conference in Washington in July to prosecute “Far-Left Terrorists”. The Federal Ministry of the Interior is planning a follow-up conference on German soil, all details of which will remain secret.

Left-wing organizing against brutal ICE raids is not terrorism, nor is resistance to burgeoning fascism in the United States and elsewhere. That's why more attention and solidarity with the Prairieland prisoners and the "Minnesota 15" is needed from Germany. The outcry over the shutdown of the left-wing tech collective Autistici/Inventati after US sanctions was also too quiet. This created a precedent: Unwelcome political structures can be paralyzed via their financial flows and Internet addresses, because service providers such as Visa and Paypal, like the administrators of the .org, .net and .com domains, are based in the USA - and have to follow presidential orders there.

The federal government would also have to take a clear position on this. The Netherlands is already doing this and is considering whether to implement a US mutual legal assistance request to seize Autistici/Inventati servers. That doesn't necessarily show any backbone, but it's a step in the right direction. The federal government is following the approach of international fascism: only the basic rights of those who promote it are defended.

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