FBI opens criminal probe of Minneapolis anti-ICE activists' Signal chats

On Monday, January 26, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the bureau had opened a criminal investigation into encrypted Signal group chats that Minneapolis-area residents were using to track and share information about suspected ICE and Border Patrol vehicles, including vehicle descriptions and license-plate numbers. Patel made the disclosure in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, saying the probe was triggered by a viral thread on X from influencer Cam Higby, who claimed to have "infiltrated" multiple Signal groups and described what he called structured efforts to identify federal vehicles and dispatch members to locations where agents were believed to be operating. Patel said the FBI was examining whether the coordination crossed legal thresholds such as the "doxxing" of agents or threats against officers, adding that "if that leads to a break in the federal statute or a violation of some law, then we are going to arrest people."

Civil-liberties and free-speech advocates responded that publicly observing and documenting on-duty law enforcement is not inherently illegal and must be carefully distinguished from criminal conduct. Aaron Terr of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told NBC News there are "legitimate reasons to share such information, including enabling members of the public to observe and document law enforcement activity and to hold officials accountable for misconduct." The investigation surfaced during a period of intense public anger in Minneapolis over aggressive federal immigration operations, including the Border Patrol killing of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti two days earlier, and fits a broader pattern of the FBI under Patel directing investigative attention toward critics and protected expression.

The Standing records this as an instance of protester surveillance, politicized investigation, and the weaponization of the Justice Department: the opening of a federal criminal inquiry into the lawful, publicly observable activity of organizers — announced through a partisan media appearance and prompted by an ideological influencer's post — turns investigative power into a tool that can intimidate accountability work and chill the constitutionally protected monitoring of government conduct.