Free Republic

n less than a month, two “ICE watchers” have been shot and killed by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis. On January 24, a federal agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a Veterans Affairs ICU nurse. His death follows that of Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was killed on January 7. Both Pretti and Good participated in “ICE watching,” an anti-immigration-enforcement tactic that can involve tracking ICE agents, filming arrests, and alerting other activists of enforcement actions. While participants frame ICE watching as a “community safety” measure, these tactics often place untrained civilians in direct, high-stakes confrontation...

When the Trump administration sent some 2,000 immigration agents to the Twin Cities area, they were met by activists who trailed their movements and harassed them outside their hotels. The activists are members of radical groups that together have received millions of dollars from the Left's premier foundations and dark money networks, including George Soros's Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington Free Beacon review found. At the center of the unrest is the Sunrise Movement, a left-wing group founded to fight climate change that has since directed its local chapters...

Sunrise is bankrolled by a who’s who of deep-pocketed left-wing organizations. Open Society Foundations has sent it $2 million since 2019, according to its grant database. Half of the money supported general “social welfare activities.” The Ford Foundation contributed $150,000 in 2024 and $550,000 in 2025, while the MacArthur Foundation—the 12th-largest private charity in America—gave $250,000 in 2024, according to tax filings and grant disclosures.

Left-wing activists in Minneapolis are targeting ICE with a highly organized on-the-ground harassment and tracking operation, complete with hotel and license plate lists, “noise demonstrations,” and training on how to “stop ICE.” The extremist groups at the forefront of this operation have received millions of dollars from the left’s most powerful money machines, including George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington Free Beacon review found. At the center is the Sunrise Movement, which has shifted from climate activism into anti-ICE agitation in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Sunrise operatives...