The Trump administration has been investigating progressive and mainstream groups that opposed his sweeping deportations, according to newly released government documents, a practice that recalls the FBI's notorious Cointelpro operations under J Edgar Hoover, writes Kenneth Roth, a Guardian US columnist and former executive director of Human Rights Watch.
Roth, a former federal prosecutor, notes that the administration blocked a federal criminal investigation when an ICE agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis in January, just before she was shot while observing and protesting against ICE officers. Instead, the administration turned its prosecutorial powers on the protesters and groups involved in opposition to Trump's deportation agenda.
Operation Puppet Master and the Investigation
In what it called "Operation Puppet Master", the administration used its investigative powers to pursue a vendetta against groups that opposed its deportation efforts. Federal investigators justified the investigation by claiming these groups might have provided help and money to "violent opportunists and agitators" and engaged in "domestic terrorist financing". This language parallels Trump's September directive expanding the definition of domestic terrorism to include using violence or intimidation to obstruct the rule of law.
The investigation was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which issued administrative subpoenas without judicial authorization and used intrusive techniques to collect records and wire transfers from certain progressive groups going back three years, long before the anti-deportation protests began. Roth describes this as a "fishing expedition" – the abuse of prosecutorial powers without concrete evidence.
Surveillance and Charges
Undercover federal investigators spied on public meetings and infiltrated group chats on Signal, recording license plate numbers to determine who attended protest meetings. For example, at a 31 January meeting in a Minneapolis library, a homeland security undercover officer listened as supporters of the Sunrise Movement discussed sit-ins and de-escalation tactics. The agent reported that the group focused on "peaceful" protests.
The administration has charged 15 people with obstructing federal immigration operations in Minnesota using vehicles and other objects. The 94-page indictment does not allege injuries to specific ICE officers or serious violence but asserts activists set up blockades, threw chunks of ice at federal vehicles, and "stalked" agents. Similar charges in parallel cases have been dismissed or dropped at an unusually high rate.
Historical Parallels and Legal Concerns
Roth draws parallels to Cointelpro, the FBI's covert program from the 1950s to the 1970s that infiltrated and discredited leftist organizations, especially those promoting Black civil rights or opposing the Vietnam war. Exposure of these outrages led to major reforms, which the Trump administration now seems determined to reverse.
Roth emphasizes that coordinated protests are protected by the first amendment and are lawful. For the administration to transform them into a criminal conspiracy, it would have to show the groups knew protests would obstruct federal agents "by force, intimidation or threat" and that criminality was a purpose of their coordination – an enormous stretch.
Responding to the misconduct, Unidos MN, a human rights group in Minnesota, said the government is "lashing out desperately in hopes of intimidating people and organizations that have shown the power of communities acting together". Roth concludes that this latest Trump abuse shows the importance of continuing to stand up to his lawless vision of his presidency.
