The DOJ is increasingly charging ICE protesters with criminal conspiracy
The U.S. Department of Justice is increasingly using Civil War-era conspiracy statutes to prosecute protesters involved in anti-ICE demonstrations. Legal experts note a significant shift in how these laws are applied, moving from targeting insurrectionists to targeting immigration activists.
Why it matters
The use of conspiracy charges against protesters raises significant civil liberties concerns regarding the right to assembly and the scope of federal prosecutorial power.
Early one morning this June, Treasure Thoreson was drinking coffee on her couch in Minneapolis when she heard a knock at the front door.
"I go and I see a woman standing there in office clothes, but with a Homeland Security vest over the top. And I see six more agents standing in my front yard," Thoreson told NPR. "She said, 'We have a warrant for your arrest, for conspiracy.'"
Thoreson, a special education teacher, was still in her pajamas. The agent let her change clothes and hug her partner goodbye before taking her into custody.
The government charged Thoreson and 14 others with engaging in a conspiracy to impede federal agents – a conspiracy it says culminated in the use of blockades outside the Whipple Federal Building, which served as ICE's headquarters during the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota this past winter.
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