Who Funds the Groups Harassing ICE Agents in Minnesota? The Left's Premier Foundations and Dark Money Networks Have Given Millions, Records Show.
When the Trump administration sent some 2,000 immigration agents to the Twin Cities area, they were met by activists who trailed their movements and harassed them outside their hotels. The activists are members of radical groups that together have received millions of dollars from the Left's premier foundations and dark money networks, including George Soros's Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
At the center of the unrest is the Sunrise Movement, a left-wing group founded to fight climate change that has since directed its local chapters to fight the Trump administration. For Sunrise Twin Cities, that means tormenting ICE agents on the ground. The group holds in-person "action trainings" on how to "stop ICE & build a revolution." It also maintains a running list of the Twin Cities hotels housing ICE agents and organizes late-night "noise demonstrations" aimed at making it "impossible" for those hotels to operate.
Sunrise is bankrolled by a who's who of deep-pocketed left-wing organizations. Open Society Foundations has sent it $2 million since 2019, according to its grant database. Half of the money supported general "social welfare activities." The Ford Foundation contributed $150,000 in 2024 and $550,000 in 2025, while the MacArthur Foundation—the 12th-largest private charity in America—gave $250,000 in 2024, according to tax filings and grant disclosures. Sunrise says it generally rejects "checks that come with expectations of input on our strategy." It also says donations go to support its local chapters with "materials, housing, technology, food, travel, training expenses, and more."
Sunrise Twin Cities has collaborated with two other local groups to drive anti-ICE demonstrations: Unidos MN and Defend the 612.
Unidos, an "immigrant-led, BIPOC majority, multiracial, state-wide organization," leads a "rapid response" network through its affiliate group, Monarca. That network includes a 24/7 hotline that Twin Cities residents can call to report ICE activity. The group's trained "responders" are then dispatched to the area in an attempt to prevent ICE agents from making arrests. Like Sunrise, Unidos is backed by the Ford Foundation, which sent the group $400,000 in 2024. The left-wing dark money juggernaut Sixteen Thirty Fund sent Unidos $150,000 between 2021 and 2022, tax filings show.
Defend the 612 offers similar "ICE Watch Welcome & Orientation" trainings for those in the Twin Cities interested in "documenting ICE activity." It also offers "Community Response Resources" that provide guidance on "Tracking Federal Agents." This includes a list of known ICE vehicles operating in the Twin Cities—or a list of "License Plates of Abductors," as Defend the 612 describes federal immigration agents. The group accepts donations through Cooperation Cannon River, a Minneapolis-based "social and environmental justice" nonprofit that has received funding from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the left-wing dark money giant Tides Foundation, and the Solutions Project, a grantmaking organization founded by actor Mark Ruffalo.
Another group that operates its own ICE sighting hotline, Copal MN, has received $50,000 from the Tides Foundation and an additional $185,000 from the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
The groups' funding sources underscore the extent to which Democratic billionaires prop up some of the more radical left-wing activism across the country.
Such activism surged in Minneapolis after the January 7 death of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Renee Good. Good was blocking a neighborhood road when agents ordered her to get out of her SUV. Instead, she drove forward. An ICE agent positioned in front of her car fired three shots, killing her.
Good's wife, Becca Good, was on the scene and told Good to "drive" as the agents approached the SUV. Becca Good reportedly followed an Instagram page, "MN Ice Watch," that describes itself as an "autonomous collective documenting & resisting against ICE, police, & all colonial militarized regimes."
Last June, the page posted training slides that it described as a "basic introduction to de-arresting," a tactic in which activists pressure police to release arrestees. One slide calls for "totally surrounding the officers who have the arrestee or otherwise blocking them and/or their vehicle and chanting 'Let them go!' and the like until the LEOs [law enforcement officers] cave to the mounting pressure." A second slide calls for "pulling and pushing an officer off of an arrestee and/or breaking their grip on an arrestee," a move the slide says is "probably the most risky as it requires physical contact with an officer."
MN Ice Watch does not appear to be organized professionally and does not list a fundraising page. But it does maintain ties to Sunrise Twin Cities, Unidos, and Defend the 612. Sunrise Twin Cities and Defend the 612 tagged MN Ice Watch in a post listing local hotels that house ICE agents. Unidos, meanwhile, is one of the 184 accounts MN Ice Watch follows on Instagram.
The State of Minnesota has also promoted Unidos through its Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs, a state agency that includes the group on its list of "community resources." But Monarca, the "rapid response network" led by Unidos, has attempted to lower its profile amid increased national attention—it recently set its website to private.
Sunrise, Unidos, and Defend the 612 did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did the Ford Foundation, Tides Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, or the Sixteen Thirty Fund. An Open Society Foundations representative said the group stood by its grantmaking decisions.
"The Open Society Foundations support the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, including the rights to free speech and peaceful protest that are hallmarks of any vibrant democracy," a spokesperson said.
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