MINNESOTA’S SIGNALGATE: The Anatomy of a Domestic Insurgency

MINNESOTA’S SIGNALGATE: The Anatomy of a Domestic Insurgency.

A puzzled reader might object that activists have long monitored police activity, that legal observers carry cameras, that communities organize to protect their neighbors. All true, in isolation. The question is not whether any single act is novel. The question is whether the aggregate pattern exhibits features that distinguish protest from organized obstruction. Research from counterinsurgency studies provides a useful vocabulary. Early stage insurgencies rarely announce themselves with bombs. They begin with infrastructure. They build command structures. They specialize roles. They develop intelligence capabilities. They seek to deny the state freedom of movement while remaining sub kinetic.

By that standard, Minnesota displays a striking resemblance to the organizational phase of an insurgency. Recruitment and cadre formation occur through ICE Watch training sessions organized at local schools, NGO facilities, and even HUD provided meeting spaces, converting civic infrastructure into intake and indoctrination nodes. Encrypted Signal networks, colloquially dubbed SignalGate, are divided by geography and capped at roughly 1,000 participants per zone. Membership is vetted through the use of voter rolls, with applicants screened to exclude anyone listed on Republican voter rolls. Chats are deleted on a daily rotation. Roles are assigned. Some participants act as spotters, scanning neighborhoods for federal vehicles. Others are plate checkers, logging make, model, color, location, and timestamp into a shared database known as MN ICE Plates. Dispatchers monitor the feed and direct mobile chasers to intercept targets. The reporting format mirrors SALUTE, size, activity, location, unit, time, equipment, a method taught in military intelligence.

This matters because intelligence collection is not expressive conduct. It is operational. When information is persistently gathered, verified, stored, and acted upon, it becomes a parallel intelligence system. In multiple instances, vehicles later confirmed not to belong to ICE were nonetheless tailed for hours after being flagged. That persistence reveals intent. The goal is not merely to warn neighbors. It is to degrade federal operations by denying surprise and freedom of movement.

The involvement of political officials further sharpens the picture. Leaked chats show participation or coordination by elected figures and senior staff. Minnesota Lt Gov Peggy Flanagan appears under aliases such as Flan Southside. City Council Member Aurin Chowdhury is linked to administrative roles. Former Walz adviser Amanda Koehler is identified as an organizer. Journalists affiliated with MPR and NPR appear in groups where federal locations and movements are discussed in real time. The line between observation and participation blurs when presence inside an operational channel confers access to intelligence and legitimacy to the network.

Read the whole thing. What happens next? Kurt Schlichter has some thoughts:

Related: Alex Pretti Committed Previous Felony on Officers Before Deadly Attack

Uncovering The Bullshit Vol 1: Beyond Signal - The Anti-Ice Files

With help from

@astrarce

For months, online networks have tracked ICE agents in real time — logging license plates, tagging vehicles, sharing intel in private chats. Now, leaked documents reveal how the system actually works, who built it, and who's funding it. All of the following information has been forwarded to the

@FBI

@FBIDirectorKash

.

BACKGROUND

In the wake of the Trump administration's aggressive immigration crackdown, particularly Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, which has led to thousands of arrests since December 2025, a decentralized network of anti-ICE activists has mobilized across the state, with signs of similar tactics spreading nationally. Operating primarily through encrypted Signal channels (often neighborhood-specific "rapid response" groups with dispatchers, patrols, and relay admins), the network maintains multiple public-facing identities to coordinate observations, alerts, and responses. These include:

• Isles RR (Isles Rapid Response) — A key Signal-based group focused on real-time plate checks, vehicle tailing, and alerts in Minneapolis neighborhoods like Isles/Uptown areas.
• MN Community Response (or Minnesota Community Response) — An umbrella term for county-level Signal networks, rapid deployment teams, and shared resources like databases and patrol manuals, emphasizing "community networks" in every Minnesota county.
• Whipple Watch — An informal monitoring action centered on the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building (Fort Snelling ICE facility in St. Paul), where volunteers track convoys, agents, and releases, often feeding intel into broader chats.

These labels function more as project tags or chat group names than formal organizations. No single headquarters, no public 501(c)(3) filings, just loose coalitions of volunteers using tools like Airtable for suspected ICE vehicle databases, Proton Drive for shared "Patrol Manuals," and emoji-coded alerts to mobilize quickly. Publicly, the networks frame their work as lawful: legal observation of federal agents, peaceful protest, community outreach, and "know your rights" support. They position themselves as modern neighborhood watches defending vulnerable residents from what they call excessive enforcement. But documents, chat logs, and on-the-ground tactics raise serious questions: Are these activities truly limited to passive observation? Or do they cross into real-time interference, obstruction, or worse? The timing is anything but coincidental. The surge in enforcement has sparked intense backlash, culminating in two high-profile fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis this month alone:

• On January 7, 2026, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Nicole Good (also reported as Renée Macklin Good), a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, mother of three, poet, and local resident. Multiple bystander videos and an ICE agent's own cellphone footage show the encounter unfolding after Good stopped near an enforcement action, possibly to witness or support neighbors. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it has galvanized outrage, with memorials, chants like "Observing ICE is not a crime," and scrutiny over ICE tactics.
• Less than three weeks later, on January 24th, federal agents (including Border Patrol) shot and killed Alex Pretti (Alex Jeffrey Pretti), a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital. This second event intensified protests, with thousands marching in subzero temperatures, and even drew bipartisan criticism and calls for deeper probes into ICE/DHS conduct.

Were Good and Pretti truly "innocent bystanders" caught in the crossfire? Or were they drawn to the scenes, perhaps via rapid response alerts, to observe, document, or impede ICE operations, only for encounters to turn deadly? The networks' playbook of real-time tracking, tailing vehicles, and mobilizing crowds could explain how civilians end up in such volatile situations so quickly.

Watching this unfold, led me to ask these questions:

Who orchestrates this?

Who funds the tools, trainings, and coordination?

And with federal scrutiny mounting, including potential FBI probes into Signal chats for obstruction, what comes next?

The documents and evidence uncovered in this investigation may force answers and challenge the narrative that these are merely peaceful observers. What follows will make you question everything you've been told about these "community networks" and the true cost of resistance.

THE SOFTWARE/INFRASTRUCTURE

By now, we've all seen fragments of the chaos; leaked signal screenshots from groups like Ward 4 N MPLS RR Alerts and Southside RR Daily flooding x, showing real-time plate checks, emoji alert systems, dispatchers summoning crowds, and panicked admins scrambling as infiltrations into their signal chats were exposed. Those leaks, many tied to journalists like

@camhigby

, cracked open the facade of "peaceful observation", revealing coordinated tracking, tailing, and mobilization that critics call outright obstruction.

What i am about to show you has yet to be seen by anyone outside a tight inner circle.

All of this is made possible by a whistleblower with genuine inside access: not just chat logs, but never-before-exposed organizational documents, databases logging thousands of suspected government vehicles, and proprietary software tools used for rapid verification and deployment. These materials go far beyond surface-level screenshots. They expose the infrastructure, funding trails, the hierarchies, and the decision-making that turned neighborhood "response" networks into something far more systematic and potentially criminal.

Introducing "Community of Service":

As you can see, this is now far more sophisticated than a typical signal chat. Available to only vetted and verified "patrollers". Patrollers can now pick up shifts, view available routes, view live maps and much more.

Additionally, within the "Routes & Locations" page, are marked known ICE housing locations.

Patrollers can register a "patrol vehicle". And even request to be a "Dispatcher"