Anti-ICE 'digital Minutemen' use military-grade surveillance tactics against feds
Early last week, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the bureau is investigating the use of the encrypted Signal messaging platform by "ICE Watch" activists to track and block federal immigration enforcement.
Just days later, Jill Garvey, co-founder of a group called "States at the Core," logged into a Zoom webinar to train a new crop of "rapid responders" on a military-grade intelligence gathering method called "SALUTE." An acronym for Size, Activity, Location, Uniform, Time, Equipment, SALUTE is a mnemonic device that typically instructs soldiers how to systematically track details about enemies. Garvey framed the work as operational surveillance against agents she had called "mercenaries" in an interview days earlier.
"We are all ICE Watch!" declared Garvey, whose group is funded by the Hopewell Fund, a dark-money organization aligned with the Democratic Party. She added a boast that she's taught 40,000 "rapid responders" this past year.
Garvey is just one of hundreds of anti-government operatives training agitators to interfere with federal law enforcement. Last Saturday, Manola De Los Santos, co-founder of the People’s Forum – a Marxist-Leninist organization funded by a China-based tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, with documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party – hosted an all-day "People’s Assembly for ICE Out of NY!" at the group’s headquarters on W. 37th Street.
"Adopt a corner!" leaders urged, instructing attendees to conduct surveillance tactics at fixed locations.
That same day, at about 4 p.m. ET, a user on one of 37 Signal chats operated by the "Seattle Area Rapid Response" network shared a copy of the "Mini-Manual Of The Urban Guerrilla," a 67-page Marxist manifesto outlining the use of "mobile units," "surprise," "knowledge of the terrain," "occupation," "mobility and speed," a "clandestine press," "popular support" and "street tactics," such as "constructing barricades," "throwing bottles" and ultimately using lethal weapons, to wage a "revolutionary armed struggle" against the United States.
The user directed fellow "rapid responders" to page 35 for "security level questions." There, the manual advised recording a "daily information service" on "what the enemy appears to be doing, where the police net is operating and what points are being watched."
A Fox News Digital investigation reveals these groups are part of a nationwide web of at least 200 anti-ICE organizations that are building a civilian intelligence-gathering and "rapid response" system that trains, mobilizes and activates civilians to act as on-the-ground scouts, using the SALUTE method to collect data on federal authorities they cast as the "enemy," raising serious national security concerns.
In intelligence circles, they would be called "collectors" in the craft of "human intelligence, or "HUMINT."
Fox News Digital has established that these national operations feed data about the movements of law enforcement and immigration authorities into at least 13 sophisticated databases, storing highly-sensitive information including license plate numbers, timestamps, geolocation data, uniform details, photographs, behavior patterns and, in at least one case, the names, email addresses and phone numbers of federal authorities. The network operates through at least 18 hubs nationwide in largely Democratic states and cities, coordinating traffic, verification and reporting.
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"This is mind-blowing. We have an entire nation of collectors against our country’s law enforcement. It’s extremely dangerous," said retired U.S. Army Green Beret Eric Schwalm, who first learned the SALUTE framework as a newly enlisted Army private, later applying it during patrols in Iraq as he fought an insurgency and, then, in Afghanistan as he trained Northern Alliance fighters to defeat the Taliban government.
After reviewing the civilian training, operations and databases uncovered by Fox News Digital, he said, "If Iraqi resistance ran this level of operation against us, we couldn’t have stayed past 2007. They didn’t even need to shoot at us. Protests like this would have created a narrative nightmare."
Indeed, these stakeouts have not only become deadly, with the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but they have led to many confrontations and most often put federal authorities on the losing end of a narrative war. On Tuesday, a group of "rapid responders" in "Minnesota Ice Watch" tailed ICE agents so closely with their vehicles that agents ordered them — at gunpoint — to stop their cars, before handcuffing and detaining them.
At a recent anti-ICE training webinar, Gabe Gonzalez, a co-founder of "Protect Rogers Park," a neighborhood anti-ICE group in north Chicago that pioneered the "rapid response" alerts, coaxed the webinar's attendees to take risks, complimenting them as "courageous." His group includes SALUTE in its "SOP," or standing operating procedures, to "protect targeted locations," like churches and food pantries, and organize "Remote Responders" stationed at "cafes and shops," "near windows of major throughways" and other "sensitive areas."
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Raising particular national security concerns, the network includes foot soldiers and leaders of the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, two professional protest organizations in the Singham network that openly support the People’s Republic of China as an ideal state and declare they seek to dismantle the "hyper-imperialism" of the "American empire" from inside the "belly of the beast." The organizations didn’t return requests for comment.
Several congressional committees are investigating Singham’s network, which now includes "ICE Out of New York." That group tells donors online: "Yes, your donation is tax-deductible. We are collecting donations through The People’s Forum which is a 501(c)3 not for profit organization…" As part of its efforts, its leaders created a slick "Migra Whistle Instructional Zine," with the SALUTE method detailed under the header: "SPREAD INFORMATION, NOT PANIC."
"FORM A CROWD. STAY LOUD," the flyer instructed its scouts.
In upstate New York, Rafael Concepcion, a former assistant teaching professor of photography at Syracuse University, told Fox News Digital he plans to launch "a score" of new ICE tracking databases built from a mapping platform he published last year, called "DEICER" for "Diversity Equity Inclusion Community Engagement Reporter."
Concepcion said he wanted to build a "network of digital minutemen," the elite hand-picked rapid-deployment force that were part of the New England colonial militia, ready at a "minute’s notice" to scout British Army locations during the American Revolution, often times before skirmishes broke out.
In today’s scenario, U.S. federal authorities are the target. Concepcion said "the use of the SALUTE method" is to differentiate between local police and federal immigration officers.
"One of the things that our constitution has tried to be able to provide is an avenue for individuals to make sure that they are aware of any kind of tyrannical government," he said. "If we are supposed to be able to guard against foreign and domestic, there should be a mechanism for us to be able to identify that.
Already, Siembar NC, a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit based in Charlotte, N.C., with $2.5 million in revenue in its last tax filing, has launched the DEICER database in North Carolina on a platform called OjoNC. "Ojo" means eyes in Spanish. Further north, LUCE Immigration Justice Network of Massachusetts, a project of Neighbor to Neighbor MA Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has activated Concepcion's mapping database. In Chicago, he developed "Windbreaker" for local groups to use. The groups didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In a near-identical training last week, Garvey’s session unfolded like a field briefing. She pressed new recruits to assess whether they were observing "a tactical unit," identify "types of munitions and how much" and determine whether officers were moving in "four, two, four, or six-man formations." She emphasized the importance of corroboration, instructing participants to "gather more people to confirm what you’re seeing."
Garvey outlined three defined operational roles — recorder, supporter, and monitor — and instructed participants to carry whistles with coded signals. Three blasts indicated an ICE operation in progress. Participants were told to wear the whistles visibly, so others would recognize that they were "part of the team." Garvey urged them to rehearse at home what to do if stopped by police.
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Unassuming in appearance, with well-coiffed blonde hair and a soft-spoken, timid delivery style, Garvey defended the surveillance during the webinar, saying the targets were "public officials."
A spokesperson for the Hopewell Fund said in a statement, "States at the Core provides training for people to lawfully and peacefully observe law enforcement in their communities, and Hopewell is proud to be their fiscal sponsor."
Some of the databases have drawn the attention of a counterforce of independent programmers and technology specialists — including anonymous X users with handles such as @astrarce and @b****uneedsoap — who have attempted to disrupt or shut them down. At least one database has gone offline. Others remain active and continue to grow.
The activities of these surveillance networks potentially violate multiple federal laws. Federal statutes, such as 18 U.S.C. § 115 and 18 U.S.C. § 2261A, protect federal agents from threats and stalking, and violations connected to obstructing, striking or resisting federal agents are felonies.
In Washington state, the Seattle-area rapid response network has spawned 35 separate Signal chats. In Minnesota, there are at least 20 Signal chats. In Rhode Island, the Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance sends out alerts over the WhatsApp messaging platform.
From there, the intelligence flows into databases.
Last June, Dominick Skinner, reportedly an Irish immigration activist based in the Netherlands, first published one of the most egregious databases, "ICE List," documenting the names, photos, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of ICE and Border Patrol agents, in a bid to hold them "legally accountable." The list has grown to an estimated 4,500 entries.
He calls the database a new "journalistic" project of "Crust News," a Substack newsletter that has published articles against the "dictatorship" of "the USA’s fascist regime" and the "terrorism" of its "modern Gestapo."
In his "incident" report, Skinner specifically asks for "clear views of agents, uniforms, vehicles or locations."
Within minutes, Skinner responded to a request for comment but refused to answer any questions, including about his ideological motivation or funding sources, instead railing against the "fascist media sphere in the USA" and noting "your questions will be shared with the public."
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In Minnesota, the developers of the "MN ICE Plates" database use the language of socialist and communist networks to describe themselves as operating in "occupied Minnesota." It’s supported by "Defend the 612," the area code for Minneapolis, and its dispatchers sent "rapid responders," including local resident Alex Pretti, to the Glam Doll Donut shop on Nicollet Avenue, in the hour before his confrontation with federal officials and killing, according to Fox News Digital reporting.
Over the past week, since the FBI investigation launched into the backend surveillance tactics on federal officials, the database entries have almost doubled to 5,397 records of "confirmed" and "highly suspected" ICE vehicles and agents, with photos, locations, timestamps, and cross-referenced sightings. The database says it is "documenting & resisting against ICE, police, & all colonial militarized regimes," inspired by "movements towards liberation."
The data crisscrosses the nation. This past Sunday, at 7:03 p.m. ET, a user filed a "Critical" report on IceOut.org, a web-based reporting platform run by the Pueblo Project Foundation as part of its "People Over Papers" initiative, documenting "possible ICE activity."
Earlier that day, on Arnett Street in Elizabeth, N.J., a user alleged that "3 men took a female. There were 4 different cars," reporting the incident as "Immigration Enforcement" and uploading photographs of the vehicles and alleged agents. Pueblo Project Foundation didn’t return a request for comment.
The "RESIST" platform, whose developers say their database "flips the script on surveillance," using "facial recognition and biometric tracking."
"Mask or not, they can’t hide anymore," the platform promises, calling itself "civilian-powered intelligence" that "exposes bad actors" and "empowers direct action, public exposure and psychological disruption."
Another platform, ICEInMyArea.org, created by anonymous developers who didn’t respond to a request for comment, says it has 4,000 daily visitors with human reviews of new reports, making it "one of the most reliable tools for tracking ICE activity nationwide."
But its developers promise users "completely anonymous" privacy.
Under "Recent Reports" over the past 24 hours, it details "ICE sighted in New Britain, CT," on Corbin Avenue near a McDonald’s, "ice agents using the target parking lot" on Colorado Boulevard in Los Angeles "as a base" and a silver Ford Explorer with "no front plate, whited-out/covered rear plate" on N. Aviation Boulevard in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
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On the East Coast, Ahmad Perez, a former Biden administration political appointee and founder of Islip Forward, launched "Long Island ICE Tracker" to document "individuals and vehicles" in public, with "no reasonable expectation of privacy." He "strictly prohibited" the use of the information to "harass, threaten, intimidate, stalk, doxx or interfere" with "any person" or their "lawful activities."
Thursday on the site, Perez bragged "574 Verified Sightings" in the database, with a new listing at 1 p.m. of a weathered black Ford vehicle on Nottingham Avenue in Patchogue, N.Y., a decal saying "POLICE INTERCEPTOR" on the rear back door.
"Attempts to label community transparency efforts as ‘illegal’ or ‘surveillance’ often reflect discomfort with accountability rather than genuine concern for ethics or safety," Perez told Fox News Digital. "Oversight, documentation and public awareness are not threats to democracy — they are foundational to it."
Online tools even generate QR-codes for SALUTE templates that standardize civilian intelligence collection nationwide.
In Minnesota, the Workers Defense Alliance of Twin Cities, a socialist group whose website features a graphic of Minneapolis police’s Third Precinct on fire, teaches SALUTE and a Spanish alternative, "ALERTA," for "Activity, Location, Equipment, Response requested, Time and date, Appearance." It pitches the framework as "community defense" while explicitly teaching structured surveillance. Its leaders didn’t return a request for comment.
"ICE Watch RI" and Alerta de Migra operate in Rhode Island with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, combining protest mobilization with logged sightings of federal officers.
The creator of another database – "Deportation Tracker" – said he puts in place "strict policies and moderation" so that any content that violates anyone’s privacy is "rejected immediately." Identifying himself as Sam Fletcher, a high school student, he said, "The platform does not represent any civilian intelligence and surveillance operation. Everything that is submitted must go through a human review before being posted to the site. We don’t allow any names, images or licence plates allowed on the site. Nothing that is personally identifiable to anyone."
"Any doxxing, harassing or stalking is unacceptable," he said.
Still, critics say, the database has the information for users to violate Fletcher’s "terms of service."
Meanwhile, in Portland "Anti-Facist Aktion" hosts a "PDX ICE/DHS License Plates Community Surveillance Database," claiming to host 627 records. Its developers couldn’t be reached for comment. It notes: "WARNING: THIS INFORMATION IS DANGEROUS TO AUTHORITY."
Garvey, the blonde anti-ICE mom whose group leads new trainings every several days. In an interview with Wajahat Ali, the host of a podcast called the "The Left Hook," Ali lauded Garvey’s strategy: "Your camera is your weapon."
Overnight, local residents in the Seattle Signal chats got alerts that they would have their first "Seattle rapid response drill" on Sunday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time.
The announcement will "follow the standard SALUTE format" to instruct responders where to go.
The alert warned: "don’t be running red lights to get there first, don’t be blowing whistles once you arrive."
Fox News Digital's Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.