PSC Executive Council Statement on National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) and Minnesota Federal Indictments
The labor community stood up courageously to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota in early 2026. Unions coordinated with community organizations in an effort to keep residents safe from an invasion of federal officers who deployed unlawful tactics and even murdered U.S. citizens for protesting. Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice took retributive action by investigating and prosecuting as “domestic terrorism” the civil disobedience and protest-related petty offenses that occurred during Operation Metro Surge. In so doing, the Trump administration has again abused its authority and escalated its war on dissent, the cornerstone of a free and democratic society.
The PSC Executive Council condemns the Trump administration’s thuggish use of NSPM-7 to intimidate and criminalize protest and worker organizing and calls on the Department of Justice to drop the spurious charges of conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers during Operation Metro Surge. Workers’ participation in meetings at the United Labor Center, Minneapolis, do not constitute a criminal conspiracy. The tools that protest organizers use to keep participants safe, such as encrypted messaging platforms and phone apps that track ICE vehicles, do not in themselves represent a conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers. Sharing information is not illegal. Being an activist or a protester is not illegal. Expressions of contempt for ICE, whether public or private, are not illegal. Now is the time for the labor movement to stand up and demand that the charges against the Minneapolis 15 be dropped.
