The Department of Homeland Security launched an undercover operation called “Operation Puppet Master” to surveil and investigate local anti-ICE efforts just days after federal immigration agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, according to court records filed on Thursday.The undercover operation run by Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, included the infiltration of local protest groups and subpoenas for the financial transaction records of several national and local labor unions and the Sunrise Movement, a climate nonprofit. The operation, along with an earlier undercover operation named “Project Whipple Shield,” was revealed on Thursday in filings by lawyers for Isaac Sant, an anti-ICE activist charged alongside 14 others with conspiracy to impede ICE officers in the Twin Cities.“This case involves an unprecedented campaign by DHS to spy on Minnesotans,” the brief by Sant’s lawyers states. “During Operation Metro Surge, undercover agents posing as protesters surveilled community meetings at churches, parks, libraries, schools and union halls.”In the documents revealed by Sant’s lawyers, Homeland Security agents claim that the operation “is focused on identifying and disrupting sophisticated, organized campaigns supporting and engaging in” actions including “impeding law enforcement, assaults against law enforcement officers, and damage to property.” Agents “will prioritize the identification of funding sources, organizational structures, and predicate actions behind these campaigns.”Federal agents attempt to control a growing crowd on Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis after Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal agents in the area, Jan. 24, 2026.Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via Getty Images via Getty ImagesThe undercover operation is identified as a response to President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting supposed left-wing domestic terrorism that led to the issuance of National Security Policy Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7). This memorandum ordered agencies to investigate funding sources of left-wing groups that the administration believes are engaged in violent acts.The executive order and memorandum are closely tied to Trump administration rhetoric targeting major liberal funding sources, like billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, as sources of funding for so-called domestic terrorism.This effort to identify organizational structures and funding sources for elements of the Minneapolis anti-ICE protests produced a slide for internal Homeland Security use that included organizations like the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of labor unions, and local chapters of the Service Employees Workers Union (SEIU), Communications Workers of America, Minnesota Association of Professional Employees and Minnesota Federation of Educators as part of a “conspiracy” related to the group Direct Action Minnesota Network (DAWN). Sant and the other 14 activists indicted by the Department of Justice in June were members of DAWN.“These wild conspiracy allegations are born from the fantasies of political retribution that animate the Trump Administration,” the brief filed by Sant’s lawyers states.As part of the undercover operation, HSI agents wearing audio recorders attended local anti-ICE trainings organized by a number of groups during Operation Metro Surge, the mass deportation campaign in the Twin Cities that ran from Dec. 4, 2025, to Feb. 16, 2026, including the Sunrise Movement, Black Cat Workers’ Collective, a local chapter of the Communications Workers of America, the anti-Trump protest group 50501 and Whipple Watch.Agents talked with organizers and were added to Signal chats where groups organized ICE observations and other protest actions, including noise protests at hotels housing ICE officers.A slide produced by Homeland Security Investigations purporting to show a conspiracy involving organizations related to anti-ICE protests in Minnesota.United States v. Sant, Motion for DiscoveryNone of the reports of investigation released by Sant’s lawyers reveal any evidence of illegal activity, conspiracy to commit illegal acts or suggestions that the organizations or individuals surveilled committed such acts.One report does, however, document an undercover HSI agent suggesting that they would be willing to break the law. The undercover agent approached a speaker at an event hosted by the Sunrise Movement at the Minneapolis Public Library, claiming to be a construction worker, and said that he would be willing to “build items” to assist in “direct action” efforts, adding that “going to jail did not bother him.”The operation also led HSI agents to subpoena bank transaction records from the national and local Minnesota chapters of the SEIU, Communication Workers of America, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and the Sunrise Movement, as well as PayPal and Venmo transactions for the nonprofit Voices for Racial Justice. This was done as an investigation into “domestic terrorist financing,” as identified in NSPM-7.The only statement about what HSI found in its search of these transaction records was that SEIU engages in “various types of debits and credits to include annuity payments, strike payments, strike supplies, investments, union member dues, retiree dues, medical expenses, and pension fund expenses.”In addition to revealing the undercover surveillance effort, Sant’s lawyers allege that the government is withholding numerous reports of investigations related to Operation Puppet Master from them and is demanding their disclosure.