MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Federal immigration agents infiltrated meetings of the Sunrise Movement and other progressive organizations for months during Minnesota’s immigration protests, even as internal reports acknowledged that some of the groups explicitly emphasized nonviolence.
Court records released Thursday show undercover Homeland Security Investigations agents attended Sunrise trainings, entered encrypted Signal chats and monitored demonstrations as part of investigations called “Operation Puppet Master” and “Project Whipple Shield.” Federal agents also obtained years of financial records involving Sunrise and several labor unions.
One particularly striking episode occurred during a Jan. 31 Sunrise training at a Minneapolis library. An undercover agent reported that organizers stressed “peaceful” protest and taught de-escalation techniques. According to a defense filing, the same agent later approached an organizer and offered to construct items that could assist more confrontational “direct-action” protests…