A bombshell new report from City Journal is pulling back the curtain on a radical anti-ICE network operating inside Minneapolis.
Investigative journalist Christina Buttons spent time inside ICE Watch group “Defend the 612″ – named for the Minneapolis area code – which she describes as “the beating heart of the city’s resistance to federal immigration enforcement.”
The Group
As reported on Wednesday’s AM Update, Buttons gained access to “Defend the 612” Signal messaging chats, reviewed the group’s training materials, and traced its funding and organizational support to outside sources.
As Buttons observed, “members and related officials have encouraged protesters to impede law enforcement; pushed civilians toward legally and physically risky confrontations; and helped mobilize a counterprotest that turned violent.”
The two civilians who were fatally shot in January amid confrontations with federal agents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were participating in so-called ‘ICE watching’ at the time of their deaths. During ‘ICE watches,’ trained agitators are encouraged to track federal agents, film their activities, blow whistles, block traffic, and otherwise impede law enforcement.
Buttons also uncovered a Signal profile in “Defend the 612” that appeared to belong to Good.
The Training
According to City Journal, “Defend the 612″ runs frequent ICE-watch trainings that teach attendees how to “identify, document, and alert others to immigration enforcement.” Some session are reportedly taught by outside groups such as States at the Core (STAC) and Project RP.
While neither group responded to the outlet’s request for comment, the Journal identified activist Jill Garvey, who co-founded STAC in 2024, as a prominent organizing advisor of “Defend the 612.” Buttons reported the STAC “is fiscally sponsored by the Hopewell Fund,” a non-profit progressive advocacy group described as part of a “dark money” network.
Buttons posted one of Garvey’s Zoom training videos to X, where the activist lays out the worldview driving these efforts. “Why is it happening? Is it because of immigration? Is it because there’s actually a problem with an invasion into the U.S. or because there’s crime? No, that’s not it, right,” she said, in part. “Those are the justifications for this aggressive targeting, but immigrants and other marginalized groups of people are just caught in the crosshairs, right, of this escalation of authoritarianism.”
“So, this has been happening throughout history,” Garvey continued. “It has happened throughout authoritarian movements, right? It’s this need to scapegoat vulnerable people so they can consolidate power and profit.”
City Journal uncovered that “Defend the 612” trainings go beyond identifying and documenting immigration enforcement to even encouraging protesters to get themselves arrested to divert federal resources away from their intended targets.
Minneapolis City Council Member Dan Engelhart described the mission as to “slow [law enforcement actions] down and cost them money,” while instructor Lex Horan advised participants on risk-taking in a training video posted to X by Buttons.
“Within that every day, we also encourage folks to make their own personal risk assessments. When we say risk assessment here, we mean checking in with yourself, checking in with your people,” Horan explained, in part. “What am I up for today? What am I willing to risk at any given moment to protect what I love?”
“Our love for our neighbors is what brings us here,” he continued. “And given that love, given that care, what am I up for risking? And we encourage folks to stretch a little bit. That stretch doesn’t mean overriding our boundaries, but it means stretching a bit.”
Recruitment Efforts
City Journal found that organizers have capitalized on the deaths of Good and Pretti to boost recruitment numbers. The evening Good died, “Defend the 612” held an “emergency vigil” at which flyers were distributed “directing attendees to join the group.” One organizer reported on a Zoom call that they received about a thousand new sign-ups the following day.
“This cycle reveals the core strategy of Defend the 612’s leadership,” Button concluded, “using casualties as a catalyst for further escalation.”
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