Thread by @pepesgrandma

🔥🔥🔥Immigrant Defense Network - I was Hot on the trail! Thanks to my earlier work, I’ve now found the newest, and very large, MN anti ICE and protest network! And yes, it involves orgs that I’ve already discussed, but it includes the ACLU, plus more too! I also have how they operate!

It seems that COPAL is now running things. And Ilhan Omar and Amy Klobuchar even once had taxpayer funds directed to them! And Ayada leads, is well, leading things!

This is a secretive network of over 100 orgs called the Immigrant Defense Network (IDN) m. I’ve found as many of the 100 that I could. And it seems that many are also the pro Palestinian Marxist left.

Now remember, this is part of the 2020 George Floyd Network, so they are built for rioting too.

♦️So let’s get into the details of the Immigrant Defense Network now.

COPAL stands for Copal mn Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina. In 2025, The Bush Fndn helped establish the Immigrant Defense Network (IDN) when they gave $995,000 to COPAL.

This is not the Bush family that we are familiar with, it’s Archie and Edyth Bush of MN. And its Fndn was founded in 1953.

There seems to be Soros Open Society funding also. And Ryan Perez, is the director of COPAL.

“The IDN built infrastructure that responds rapidly to immigration enforcement operations throughout the state. It allows the IDN to verify information and deploy individuals trained in its constitutional observer program. These observers are the first responders to ICE and other immigration enforcement actions, and trained by IDN partner organizations.

IDN members patrol the streets, sifting through tips to find those that are “credible or verified” and sending alerts when needed by text, email and phone calls to its constitutional observers.

A Signal chat with every trained constitutional observer in the network and organization leadership is activated. Alerts are sent to partner organizations, which then alert their own email databases, allowing the news to spread beyond the IDN’s immediate network.

Documenting ICE actions is only the first layer in the IDN’s response. Once constitutional observers record immigration enforcement, that information is passed on to the network’s legal partners, who can use it to craft immigrants’ legal defense.

The IDN had been on high alert in the wake of large-scale operations in other U.S. cities. To prepare, it had established a campaign called Adopt a Corner to protect high-risk areas and send out alerts.
“People are going to be documenting, they’re going to be verbally upholding civil rights, they’re going to be asking if ICE is on the scene that they’re presenting the proper warrants and documentation,” said Ryan Perez, COPAL’s organizing director. “They’re just upholding people’s civil rights all around.”

♦️ IDN Members

The organization has a seven-member steering committee composed of a variety of both large and small immigrant advocates and human rights groups. They include:

- ACLU Minnesota
- Ayala Leads
- COPAL
- Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration (ICOM)
- Land Stewardship Project
- Minnesota 8
- The Advocates for Human Rights

Affiliates

- Center For Popular Democracy
- CAIR Minnesota
- Unidos MN
- Black Immigrant Collective
- Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid

Now the Center For Popular Democracy is as radical as they come. And they have been partnered with many far left groups for resistance work.

Here they even worked on a Democrat Attorneys Generals Association project with Obama’s OFA!Here’s the members:

“MoveOn, Indivisible, Organizing for Action (OFA), the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA), The Collective PAC, Flippable, The Arena, Center for Popular Democracy Action, National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), Latino Victory, Progressive Turnout Project, NewFounders, MobilizeAmerica, Sister District, Wall of US, Working Families Party, Resistbot, Stand Up America, Democrats .com”

Sources and additional details to follow.

🚨Before I begin, I’m adding extremely pertinent information. We have Tim Waltz and additional Amy Klobuchar linkage here. There’s also McKnight Fndn funding I didn’t see earlier.

Edwin Torres DeSantiago, the former political director for Gov. Tim Walz, Leads the Immigrant Defense Network.

“Edwin Torres DeSantiago was described by the Star Tribune last month as the manager of the Immigrant Defense Network (IDN), a project of Comunidades Organizando El Poder y la Accion Latina (COPAL), which is one of several Minnesota organizations behind “direct action trainings” which purportedly inform residents, “how to read judicial warrants, and contribute to a repository of data for legal challenges by recording agents’ conduct.”
Attendees also learn, “whistle codes for summoning crowds,” and organizers provide, “links to rapid-response clearinghouses,” according to the outlet.

IDN itself held a training session on Tuesday in Saint Paul, part of its Brave of US Tour that instructed attendees on becoming,”Constitutional Observers to protect and defend our immigrant neighbors.””

“DeSantiago also worked as Minnesota’s full-time COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach Director, and during the 2020 campaign he worked for both U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), after previously working for Smith’s campaign in 2018.”

“Other donors include the McKnight Foundation, who provided COPAL with $350,000, “for the establishment, strengthening, and tool creation of the Immigrant Defense Network,” and the Northwest Area Foundation, who provided“$100,000 to support development and expansion of the Immigrant Defense Network through public outreach, rights education, mental health training, emergency response services, and regional collaboration across the Upper Midwest.”

archive.is/CDqIa

Essentially after Trump was elected, the Immigrant Defense Network (IDN) was born. The locals usually know the details first.

“Immediately following the 2024 presidential election, the community advocacy group Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL) reached out to partners to strengthen ties. Those discussions led to the formation of the IDN, which has expanded to include more than 100 immigrant, labor, legal, faith and community organizations dedicated to advancing the constitutional rights of Minnesota’s immigrant communities. 

Our network spans multiple counties across the state of Minnesota,” Torres Desantiago said.

The IDN has built infrastructure that responds rapidly to immigration enforcement operations throughout the state. It allows the IDN to verify information and deploy individuals trained in its constitutional observer program. These observers are the first responders to ICE and other immigration enforcement actions, trained by IDN partner organizations to exercise their legal rights when documenting federal agents in public.

“For many, we became the most reliable source of information,” he said. “We were sharing even with local agencies, because we were on the ground.”

A Signal chat with every trained constitutional observer in the network and organization leadership is activated. Alerts are sent to partner organizations, which then alert their own email databases, allowing the news to spread beyond the IDN’s immediate network. 

Documenting ICE actions is only the first layer in the IDN’s response. Once constitutional observers record immigration enforcement, that information is passed on to the network’s legal partners, who can use it to craft immigrants’ legal defense.

Perez said the Nov. 18 IDN response proved that the Twin Cities can offer meaningful resistance to immigration enforcement.

The IDN sent a leadership delegation to Los Angeles to be trained by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network on how to adapt their Adopt a Corner model, Torres Desantiago said. In addition, members from the Center for Popular Democracy will soon come to Minnesota for two days of training with IDN.

We need more people trained,” Torres Desantiago said. “We have about 2,000 people all over the state, but we need 10,000 people minimum to make sure we have enough capacity.”

archive.is/N7jH2

Now this page lists the Illegal Alien rapid response networks for MN. Conveniently, they are all part of the Immigrant Defense Network.

So is this it? The big enchilada?

Rapid response & constitutional observer networks:

•CAIR-MN - playing multiple functions for Somali community response, including safety and legal resources, communications/narrative, etc.
•MONARCA - supported by Unidos MN
•Immigrant Defense Network - supported by COPAL

*Below this it mentions thatAyada Leads is one of the leads of Immigrant Defense Network.

archive.is/sz11S

This lists the Immigrant Defense Network Steering Committee sans one. I got the last from another source. I’ll list it next. This also lists only a single affiliate org, CAIR MN. They are tight lipped, lemme tell you.

The organization has a seven-member steering committee composed of a variety of both large and small immigrant advocates and human rights groups. They include:

- ACLU Minnesota
- Ayala Leads
- COPAL
- Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration (ICOM)
- Land Stewardship Project
- Minnesota 8
- The Advocates for Human Rights (other source)

Member listed:
CAIR MN

“The Immigrant Defense Network (IDN) — an umbrella group of about 100 immigrant, labor, legal, faith and community organizations — has trained about 2,500 Minnesotans to respond to actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including last month’s road on the Bro-Tex facility in St. Paul.

Undaunted, IDN members are patrolling the streets, sifting through tips to find those that are “credible or verified” and sending alerts when needed by text, email and phone calls to its constitutional observers.

Torres said IDN has a system that uses the boundaries of state House districts to determine which people to call to respond to an incident at a certain address.

Julia Decker, policy director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, said the state’s immigrant advocates have had time to organize and train volunteers because “it’s taken a little bit longer for this type of surge to reach Minnesota.”

The organization has a seven-member steering committee composed of a variety of both large and small immigrant advocates and human rights groups. They include ACLU-Minnesota, Ayala Leads, COPAL (Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action), the Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration (ICOM) and the Land Stewardship Project,

Minnesota 8 — an organization that was formed to fight the deportation of eight Cambodian nationals in 2016 and is now an advocate for undocumented Asians in the state — and The Advocates for Human Rights are also members of the steering committee.

Dozens of other groups are affiliated with IDN, including CAIR-Minnesota, an organization that aims to protect the rights of the state’s Muslims.

But information about most of those allied with IDN is not public. And the organization pulled information, including a detailed strategic plan that lays out the group’s operational plans and political goals, from its website after Trump attacked Minnesota’s Somali community this week and his administration launched Operation Metro Surge on Monday.”

archive.is/QU34q

This COPAL MN Facebook page lists all seven on the Immigrant Defense League steering committee.

“Join a press conference on July 21st for the launch of a resolutions campaign! The Immigrant Defense Network, which includes over 90 organizations, advocates for an end to mass deportations and family separations.”

Organizations leading the network:

- ACLU of Minnesota
- The Advocates for Human Rights
- Ayada Leads
- COPAL
- Interfaith Coalition on - Immigration (ICOM)
- MN8
- Land Stewardship Project

Minnesota 8 is quite interesting too.

facebook.com/story.php?stor…

There’s few documents on the Immigrant Defense Network website. And they mention very few names. One came up twice, The Center For Popular Democracy. This got me to thinking, are they affiliated? See my next post..

“This coordinated raid carried out against immigrants is political violence,” said Maria
Castro of Popular Democracy. “In a democracy, people should be able to live, work,
raise children, and participate in civic life without the threat of state-sanctioned
violence”

This document also links to some Flickr photos from the Vigil if interested.

web.archive.org/web/2025121914…

The Center For Popular Democracy is an affiliate of COPAL, who is running the Immigrant Defense Network.

Important because of their connections and how far left they are.

More on the Center For Popular Democracy later.

archive.is/OLBHe

So far I have proven 7 steering committee members and the regular affiliates, CAIR MN and The Center For Popular Democracy.

This brings the list up to

- Cair MN
- The Center For Popular Democracy
- Unidos MN
- Black Immigrant Collective

 “ayadaleads 🧡 Yesterday, Ayada Leads stood alongside our partners COPAL MN, Unidos MN, Black Immigrant Collective, and many others in the Immigrant Defense Network—at a powerful press conference in St. Paul to raise our voices for immigrant families.

We were honored to have our very own speak at the press conference, lifting up the voices of Black immigrant communities and calling for bold local action.

✊🏽 This is just the beginning: Minneapolis votes on its resolution today (July 22), and Columbia Heights follows on July 28.

We are proud to be part of this movement—rooted in legacy, rising in power.”

instagram.com/p/DMa_RA5P-2r/

I’m certain that I could find more of the > 100 affiliates, but this is a very secretive network and it’s like pulling teeth one at a time. This short article adds the Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid.

So I have found seven steering committee members and five affiliates. I barely broke 10% discovery.

Affiliates found to date:

- Cair MN
- The Center For Popular Democracy
- Unidos MN
- Black Immigrant Collective
- Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid

cbsnews.com/minnesota/news…

If you didn’t notice from the top post.

THE IMMIGRANT DEFENSE NETWORK (IDN), HAS STATEWIDE AND NATIONAL PARTNERS!

I still can’t get over that a terrorist org (CAIR) is involved in this. No wonder things have turned so dangerous and radical.

instagram.com/p/DROEwUDD2vS/

SOROS OPEN SOCIETY PROJECT / COPAL

"NON-PROFIT" CONDUCTED AN INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF ITS FINANCES AND, REGARDING COPAL MINNESOTA FOUND SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCIES / PROBLEMS IN 2023.

An independent audit commissioned by this organization for the fiscal year ending Dec.

2023 identified:

Significant deficiency in internal controls. Audit identified a deficiency in internal financial or governance controls that could limit the organization's ability to track and report financial data reliably. The deficiency is less severe than a material weakness but warrants attention from management.

Comunidades Organizando El Poder Y La Accion
Latina Copal Education
Minneapolis, MN

Audit for period ending December 2023.

facebook.com/wes.lund.2025/…

COPAL Education Fund got the Immigrant Defense Network off the ground thru the help of the Bush Foundation.

1 Grant from 2025
TOTAL AMOUNT RECEIVED: $995,000
LOCATION: MINNEAPOLIS, MN
copalmn.org
Grants received
$995,000 in 2025 →

PROGRAM: COMMUNITY INNOVATION
TERM: 24 MONTHS

“Comunidades Organizando El Poder y la Acción Latina
(COPAL) will establish the Immigrant Defense Network
(IDN) to improve coordination among organizations serving immigrants and their families. IDN will focus on strengthening relationships and communications among organizations and develop media strategies that help tell the stories of immigrants and their contributions in communities throughout the region.”

archive.is/rhtNj

Here’s Ilhan Omar and Amy Klobuchar procuring funds for Copal.

♦️CONGRESSWOMAN ILHAN OMAR SECURED FUNDS FOR COPAL, FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRIMERO DE MAYO WORKERS CENTER

COPAL and its partner ACER (African Career, Education, & Resource) will receive funds from the federal government, thanks to the advocacy of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Senator Amy Klobuchar. COPAL focuses its work on the Latino community and ACER on the African community.

archive.is/b1eyH

If I post something, I source it! But whew does this make me sleepy. I’m gonna take a break before finding more.

The Center For Popular Democracy is an affiliate of COPL. As I have shown earlier in this 🧵.

But I wanna point out this association of the Center specifically.

Here the Center for Popular Democracy partnered with the Democrat Attorney Generals assoc along with Trump resistance orgs and Obama!

Wow! Talk about connections!

archive.is/yCWIE

It seems COPAL MN deleted their directors page since Dec 20, 2025. I have it, and what are they hiding?

I did notice that EDWIN TORRES DESANTIAGO, who works at the Immigrant Defense Network, also works at COPAL MN! 🤔 But there was also an additional person that he worked for that I wasn’t aware of.

Not only did he work for Tim Walz, Rep Amy Klobuchar, and Rep Tina Smith, he worked for Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan too! 🙀

Edwin is also the Vice President of Public Affairs at NewPublica LLC.

See anything important that I missed from this page?

web.archive.org/web/2025122006…