Federal prosecutors charge 15 people with impeding agents during Minnesota immigration crackdown

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged 15 people with impeding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year, accusing them of coordinating efforts to block deportations as part of a conspiracy against the U.S. government.

During a news conference Tuesday, Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said the monthslong investigation focused on two activist groups whose members and associates “violently opposed the enforcement of federal law."

He characterized the groups as “antifa,” an umbrella term for a diffuse movement of militant left-wing activists.

Information for the defendants' attorneys was not immediately available.

The indictment comes as the Trump administration continues to target protesters associated with “antifa,” which he has labeled a domestic terrorist group.

In March, eight people accused of having ties to antifa were convicted on terrorism charges in a Texas shooting, a first of its kind case that raised concerns among some civil liberties groups.

The 15 people charged Tuesday were part of “Direct Action Minnesota,” a left-wing coalition of protest groups that trains its members in the “surveillance, operational planning and rapid mobilization against law enforcement,” Rosen said.

Their alleged actions include “stalking” U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, throwing blocks of ice at their vehicles, setting up blockades around federal buildings and passing out shields to demonstrators. Rosen declined to say whether any federal agents were injured as a result.

“Whether or not they actually, at the end of the day, cause bodily harm is not the measure of whether or not they committed a serious federal crime,” he told reporters.

Asked about the Justice Department's definition of "antifa,” Rosen said the question was “beyond the scope” of the indictment, but noted that several defendants had self-identified with the label.

On Tuesday afternoon, dozens of protesters gathered outside a federal courthouse in St. Paul, where most of the defendants were set to make an initial appearance. As some in the crowd attempted to block a courthouse door, federal officers in tactical gear deployed pepper spray at the group.

Each of the defendants was charged with conspiracy to impede or injury a federal officer, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison. Three others faced additional charges, including interstate stalking, assault on a federal officer and destruction government property.

One of the defendants, Kyle Wagner, 37, was previously arrested on charges that he made online threats against ICE officers and their supporters. An attorney listed for Wagner in that case did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The alleged conspiracy began in January, shortly after the Trump administration launched its sweeping immigration crackdown, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, in response to reports of fraud within Minnesota's Somali community.

The operation — described by the Department of Homeland Security as the largest in its history — brought thousands of federal agents, who often wore masks and traveled in unmarked SUVs, into the Twin Cities and surrounding areas.

Their arrival drew fierce protests from Minnesota residents, who quickly set up a sprawling network of anonymous Signal chats to track the movement of ICE agents. Protesters then used whistles and car horns to draw attention to detentions as they were happening.

Despite the intense pushback, federal prosecutors said the operation resulted in more than 4,000 arrests.

The administration framed the operation as a response to a burgeoning federal investigation into billions of dollars in fraud within Minnesota programs tied to Medicaid. Dozens of Somali immigrants have been convicted or implicated. Trump has called the state’s Somali population “garbage.”

Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sought to defend the Somali population and condemned Trump for sending federal officers where they weren’t needed or wanted.

In the months since, federal authorities have sought to prosecute protesters they blame for violence, while state and local Minnesota officials have pursued assault charges against at least two federal officers. The agents who fatally shot two protesters, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, have not been charged.

Walz and Ellison did not immediately respond to email messages Tuesday seeking comment on the federal indictment.

U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy announced charges against fifteen people for conspiring to interfere and injure federal immigration agents during Operation Metro Surge on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)

/// U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy announced charges against fifteen people for conspiring to interfere and injure federal immigration agents during Operation Metro Surge on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)

FILE - Federal immigration officers deploy tear gas at protesters after a shooting Jan. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)

United States Attorney Daniel N. Rosen speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Attorney's office in the Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Alex Kormann/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement officials disrupted a planned attack targeting the UFC cage-fighting show staged at the White House this past weekend, according to court papers unsealed Tuesday that say plotters who harbored fringe conspiracy theories spoke of flying explosives-laden drones and shooting panicked crowd members as they fled.

Investigators recovered high-powered firearms from several of the suspects and reviewed encrypted text messages between roughly 20 participants who shared detailed maps and aerial photographs of the area and discussed the need for a “safe house” and escape routes after the intended attack, the documents show.

But it's unclear from the court records how close the would-be attackers could have come to being able to carry out the plan had it not been thwarted.

Several suspects or co-conspirators who were questioned by the authorities said they did not intend themselves to carry out violence but planned to instead observe others. One said he would have traveled to the UFC event as a protester but had to return home after his vehicle malfunctioned. And though the participants spoke of using drones rigged with explosives, charging documents suggest they were still looking to acquire such equipment when the plot was interrupted.

Law enforcement officials learned about the possible threat on June 10, four days before the mixed martial arts extravaganza on the White House’s South Lawn, “and thanks to the rapid action of the FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” Director Kash Patel said in a post on X on Tuesday.

Five people from states including Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska and California were arrested on federal charges, the Justice Department said.

Asked about the arrests Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance said there was “more violent rhetoric coming from the left than the right these days.” But the charging documents paint a more muddled view of their views, depicting them as espousing a tangled web of anti-government sentiment, antisemitic grievances, fury over President Donald Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and conspiracy theories about a powerful elite that sacrifices and consumes children.

Both Trump and Vance said Tuesday that they had not been briefed in advance of the plot. A top Secret Service official suggested Tuesday the investigation was continuing and that an announcement might have been premature.

“Anyone that believes that case was worked in a bubble is naive,” Deputy Secret Service Director Matthew Quinn told reporters at an unrelated news conference. “I'll tell you the Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. I'll tell you that it's ongoing. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.”

Among those arrested was Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old Ohio man whose mother contacted local law enforcement last week with concerns about his firearms purchases and online communications, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.

Proper admitted in an interview with law enforcement that he participated in the planning of an attack, according to the affidavit, which says some members of the group began communicating with each other last March through a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old.”

“The members of the group stated that they wanted to protect the United States, which they believed was headed in the wrong direction,” the affidavit says. “Members of the group believed that the United States needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt. Some expressed a desire that people who were involved with Jeffrey Epstein should not govern the country.”

Trump, who celebrated his 80th birthday at the UFC event on Sunday, was friends with Epstein many years ago but has said he ended their relationship before the disgraced financier’s crimes became known. Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

A lawyer for Proper, who is charged with firearms offenses and crimes including attempted murder of an officer or employee of the United States, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The logistics were discussed via Signal, an app that uses end-to-end encryption for its messaging and calling services, through a primary chat of “approximately 19 individuals" and smaller side chats, authorities said. Messages obtained from Proper's phone show he identified by name several Republican lawmakers he said should be targeted because they apparently received donations from causes supportive of Israel, the affidavit said.

Proper told law enforcement officials that he had been planning to drive with weapons and body armor to a meet-up spot in Fredericksburg, Virginia, court papers say. He said that though he did not intend to shoot people at the White House, others in the group did, the affidavit said.

The plan called for the use of drones that would be detonated over the north side of the White House, prompting a rushed evacuation into the line of fire of waiting snipers in an attack Proper said was designed to “jumpstart” a revolution in the U.S., authorities said.

Investigators who examined Proper's phone and TikTok account identified additional suspects who helped develop plans.

Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, California, told officials that he viewed himself as “the planner and advisor for the group, and while he was not willing to take action himself, wanted to guide and instruct others on how to carry out attacks," designed to overthrow of the U.S. government, an FBI agent said in an affidavit.

The agent said Thomas believed the U.S. government was “run by an elite group of individuals who sacrifice and consume infants who also were deeply involved" with Epstein and are now protected by Trump

Another suspect, Bryan Omar Roa, also of California, told the FBI he had planned to attend the event as a “protester” but that he had to return home because his car was broken, an agent said.

It was not immediately clear who their lawyers were.

Two other suspects were identified as Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri, who officials say said in a group chat that a target of the attack should be “big and someone a majority of the country knows,” and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, an Omaha, Nebraska man whom the FBI said posted detailed plans with the co-conspirators.

A lawyer for Alvarez declined to comment and a lawyer for Eskridge did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Évian-les-Bains, France, and Michael Kunzelman in Washington contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump attends UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, UFC President and CEO Dana White and other guests pose inside the octagon after UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, June 15, 2026, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/Pool Photo via AP)

FBI director Kash Patel watches with Alexis Wilkins at UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, June 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Diego Lopes celebrates during a featherweight bout against Steve Garcia during UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - Security at the White House looks through a pair of binoculars during the UFC Fan Fest on the White House Ellipse ahead of Sunday's fight on the South Lawn, June 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert, File)