FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday that he had opened an investigation into the Signal group text chats that Minnesota residents are using to share information about federal immigration agents’ movements, launching a new front in the Trump administration’s conflict there with potential free speech implications.
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For months, digital tools have been at the center of how people have pushed back against immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota and across the country. The administration’s opponents have used group text chats to track Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, share photos of suspected ICE vehicles and raise awareness for neighbors. In June, administration officials criticized ICEBlock, an app designed to share information about ICE sightings. Apple removed the app from its app store in October, prompting a lawsuit from the app’s developer alleging the administration unlawfully pressured Apple to remove it.
In the past few days, the group text chats — especially those on the encrypted messaging app Signal — have drawn attention from right-wing media. On Saturday, Cam Higby, a conservative journalist based near Seattle, said in a thread on X that he had “infiltrated” Signal groups from around Minneapolis that he alleged were obstructing law enforcement. His thread, which got 20 million views, focused on how the groups share such information as the license plate numbers of suspected federal vehicles. NBC News has not verified Higby’s claims.
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In the Twin Cities, Signal group chats have been a standard part of toolkits — along with walkie-talkies and whistles — used by activists, parents and neighborhood-watch members who have organized as volunteers to warn families about immigration enforcement activities by relaying real-time information, especially near schools. Patrol volunteers have said that, with more than 3,000 federal immigration agents in Minnesota, they are motivated by a desire to protect parents, children and school staff members who are not U.S. citizens.