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Christina Buttons

@buttonslives

Feb 3 • 12 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X

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Minneapolis’s “ICE watch” network did not arise organically. My 3.5-week investigation for @CityJournal found that a well-funded group of professional activists implemented the operation, deploying a model now being used in cities across the US. 🧵

“Defend the 612” purports to be a spontaneous community effort merely filming ICE. My investigation shows it was organized with professional help. Its Signal networks are used to coordinate the hiding of illegal aliens, develop a media “propaganda” strategy, and plan violent protests, while its trainings push civilians toward dangerous confrontations.

Jill Garvey is the architect of this strategy. She pioneered the ICE watch model in 2017 with a Chicago group called Protect RP. In 2024, she co-founded States at the Core (STAC), which turned this model into a national strategy in early 2025.

STAC operates within the largest funding networks in progressive politics. It is fiscally sponsored by the Hopewell Fund, part of the Arabella Advisors dark money network, which moved roughly $1.179 billion across nearly 200 projects last year.

This model is being exported nationwide. STAC trainings have reached 20 states, including direct organizing support in Los Angeles, Washington DC, Charlotte, and New Orleans. By December, STAC was working with local Minneapolis activists to help form Defend the 612.

Protect RP was explicit about interfering with ICE operations. Defend the 612 echoes this language in its trainings, downplaying safety concerns, delegitimizing law enforcement, and encouraging participants to take greater risks in service of the movement.

Defend the 612 uses massive Signal networks to stalk ICE. Thousands of people across hundreds of neighborhood groups track suspected agents, logging license plates and the specific hotels where they stay.

The network runs vetted mutual aid groups that raise rent funds, deliver groceries, and provide transportation so illegal immigrants do not have to leave their homes and risk ICE contact, which can constitute harboring. Internal chats even discuss eating paper address records.

I also accessed a vetted group used for external media shaping. Members claimed a reporter from the Minnesota Reformer, part of the States Newsroom, which got its start with Arabella Advisors’ Hopewell Fund, gave them full editorial control over a story.

These groups openly discuss sabotage plans and violent protests. They encourage volunteers to throw urine on agents, harass them, and get arrested intentionally to divert federal resources. They planned a protest where violence was the goal.

Defend the 612 organizers used the deaths of Renee Good, whose Signal account I found within their network, and Alex Pretti to recruit new members. While volunteers face these physical and legal risks, the salaried architects of the movement remain shielded.

My investigation for @CityJournal reveals the professionalized strategy that brought ICE watch chaos to Minneapolis. Read the full report here: city-journal.org/article/minnea…

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More from @buttonslives

Christina Buttons

@buttonslives

Feb 12

One of the central claims behind “gender-affirming care” is that medical transition improves mental health.

A major new longitudinal study on adults has corrected the flaws in earlier research and found that medical transition is likely not what is driving those improvements.

For years, proponents have cited studies claiming mental health benefits as the primary justification for these treatments. But that claim has long rested on weak evidence, as systematic reviews have repeatedly found.

Much of the past research was observational, relying on small clinic cohorts of 30–70 patients followed for only 6–12 months. Those studies fail to control for other factors known to improve mental health and often capture temporary relief, not lasting improvement.

Read 7 tweets

Christina Buttons

@buttonslives

Feb 10

Minneapolis – Following a Jan. 17 counterprotest to a march led by @JakeLang, members of the Defend the 612 ICE Watch Signal network shared an image claiming involvement in physical confrontations during the event. Details in thread. ⬇️

In the lead-up to the event, Signal chats associated with the group discussed defensive strategies and rejected nonvioIence as the only approach.

I was removed from two Signal groups after advocating for nonvioIent protest only.

Read 7 tweets

Christina Buttons

@buttonslives

Feb 9

https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/2019808490823536830

It’s not ICE’s fault immigrants aren't showing up to work.

Activists in the “Defend the 612” ICE Watch Signal network are providing groceries and rent assistance, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars so undocumented immigrants can stay home and avoid contact with ICE.

https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/2019808490823536830

A fundraiser for immigrants in the Central neighborhood of Minneapolis raised $340,000 last month, enabling them to avoid ICE detection by staying home.
gofundme.com/f/critical-ren…

In South Mpls: $200,000.
givebutter.com/H6lQkA

There's more fundraisers in each neighborhood.

Across the Defend the 612 Signal ICE Watch network, there are “mutual aid” groups in each neighborhood.

They provide groceries and supplies and even vet care delivered to undocumented immigrants’ homes. They also arrange transportation and funds to pay rent.

Read 14 tweets

Christina Buttons

@buttonslives

Feb 6

MINNEAPOLIS — After a Jan. 17 counterprotest to Jake Lang’s march, members of Defend the 612’s Signal ICE Watch network shared this image, taking credit for the assault and calling it a “testament to the violence the masses applied against this reactionary march.”

In the days before the event, the same Signal ICE Watch chats laid out plans for a “defensive counteraction,” posted graphics including an image depicting a bloody, hanging Klansman, and issued tactical guidance instructing participants to mask up, wear goggles, and avoid filming or documenting attendees.

Additional graphics dismissed the claim that “nonviolence is the only strategy” as false.

My pseudonymous account was removed from two Signal groups after I advocated for a nonviolent protest and argued that no one should be assaulted for their speech. Members defended the use of violent tactics by citing “St. Paul’s Principles.”

Read 7 tweets

Christina Buttons

@buttonslives

Feb 4

Minneapolis’s ICE watch network is not just “monitoring” ICE activity. Internal Signal chats explicitly describe their media work as propaganda and discuss controlling narratives and managing journalists.

While undercover in the Defend the 612 network, I accessed a vetted channel called “Central communications,” created for “external narrative-shaping strategy.” 🧵

On January 13, trans activist Elle Neubauer, using the handle “princess (she/her/fae/faer),” described allowing Madison McVan of the Minnesota Reformer to accompany him on a ride-along while following ICE by car. minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/13/in-…

Neubauer claimed the reporter gave activists editorial control over the article, writing, “they gave us final say over the story. They read most of it aloud to us line by line last night, and we asked for changes. If we told them to pull the story they would have.”

He added that the journalists were “extremely up front and down for any changes asked.”

Read 6 tweets

Christina Buttons

@buttonslives

Feb 3

I joined an ICE watch training held by Defend the 612 organizers in Minneapolis on January 8, before they began taking additional steps to conceal their identities and activities.

In the training, organizers described their goal as impeding ICE operations. They downplayed risks, delegitimized law enforcement, and encouraged participants to take risks. 🧵

Defend the 612 used Renee Good’s death as a recruitment opportunity. On the evening of January 7, they advertised an “emergency vigil” for Good, where fliers were distributed directing attendees to sign up for ICE watch on their website.

This recruitment appeared to work. Andrew Fahlstrom, who led the January 8 training, is a longtime activist with the tenant organizing group Inquilinx Unidx Por Justicia (IX) and treasurer of Sky Without Limits.

He said the group had gained 1,000 new signups and stated that the purpose of the meeting was to “grow the number of people on the streets.”