On Tuesday, June 16, 2026, Treasure Thoreson was in her pajamas when she woke up to a polite knock at the door. When she opened it, six officers with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were waiting for her, a few more agents lingering behind them. Before Thoreson could ask who they were, the agents told her “we have a warrant for your arrest.” She had just officially become one of the Minnesota 15.
Over the course of that day and the next, 15 local residents were arrested by federal officers for allegedly committing various crimes, but they all share the charges of impeding or injuring a federal officer. Each of the defendants were indicted by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) for having “ANTIFA ties,” specifically to Direct Action Minnesota, a community advocacy group.
Thoreson says each Minnesota 15 member was intentionally treated differently from the very start. “One of my friends had their door busted in, windows broken, things taken, personal belongings gone through…they woke them up in bed with a gun to their head,” Thoreson told Courier Minnesota. While some, like Isaac Sant, were arrested by agents in full SWAT gear with weapons at the ready, others like Thoreson were treated softly.
When Thoreson asked if she could change clothes, officers said yes, but they had to watch her dress. She says they followed her inside, allowed her to get dressed, and hug her partner goodbye. “My partner is a 6’4” big guy who is used to being looked at, but he says they did not clock him at all. They didn’t care about him. They didn’t care about the rest of the house. They had all their eyes locked on me.”
While complying with the arrest, the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) special education teacher was contemplating what she had done to deserve these charges. During Operation Metro Surge, thousands of Minnesotans protested what ICE and the federal government were doing in the Twin Cities metro area, why was she a target?
Showing up for her community
In the 95-page indictment, the DOJ lists various communications between the 15 over encrypted messaging apps like Signal. Meetings, protests, and rallies were discussed between organizers and were listed as justification for the federal charges. Countless messages were simply about organizing mutual aid for immigrants that live in Minnesota.
“One piece of evidence they’re using against me is that I donated to a GoFundMe for a colleague of mine whose brother was deported very suddenly. This was a GoFundMe everyone in my school had donated to,” Thoreson explained. “How many people in Minneapolis donated to a GoFundMe over Metro Surge? If that is the kind of evidence they’re looking for, everybody needs to be watching this, because they could be next.”
For Thoreson, her actions were not about creating chaos or bringing harm to anyone, but showing up for her community. As a part of her union, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators (MFE), she helped get a deportation defense committee off the ground. The group began in November 2024, right after Donald Trump was reelected president, and faced a lot of pushback. “People didn’t want to believe that the government would ever send ICE anywhere near children,” Thoreson said.
Their mission was to push MPS to develop a policy that addressed what to do if ICE ever showed up on school property, and the policy–which included remote learning availability for children who couldn’t come to school out of fear–was eventually released with Thoreson’s help. On top of this, the union held Know Your Rights training sessions for staff and families, and deferral of parent authority (DOPA) clinics, which would allow a family to delegate their child’s welfare to their educator.
The group hit peak attendance and sign-ups in December 2025. Then, Operation Metro Surge took off. “That first week back from school, Renee Good was murdered. And that same afternoon, [Greg] Bovino brought all of his police to Roosevelt High School during their dismissal, deployed tear gas, tackled people to the ground, detained an educator who was standing in between ICE and their students,” Thoreson said.
After the initial shock, Thoreson got to work with her team. Having prepared for ICE action over winter break, they held food and rent drives and delivered boxes of food to families who couldn’t leave their homes. “There was a point where my school, which is pretty small, was delivering 50 boxes of food a week,” she said. Thoreson relied on people who lived in the neighborhoods they were delivering to to keep them informed on whether ICE was near.
Thoreson’s efforts lead to each of the 70 schools in the district having at least one representative in their deportation defense committee. She then led massive neighbor gatherings to help organize patrols at the schools’ busiest locations: “bus stops, our library, our food shelves in the neighborhoods, and daycares.” Ultimately, she says her actions, along with the rest of the Minnesota 15’s, were about making Minnesotans feel safe.
Pleading not guilty in the face of surveillance
On Wednesday, July 1, 2026, the Minnesota 15 attended their arraignment at the Diana E. Murphy Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis. In the middle of a work day, hundreds of Minnesotans sat in the heat outside the building in support, with only a select few allowed inside to directly observe the proceedings.
All 15 walked out of the courthouse hours later, holding a fist in the air after entering not guilty pleas. Thoreson said none of them hesitated about making their plea. “These charges assume a violent intent, which there never was. I’m proud of how I showed up for my school, for my union, for my neighborhood, for Minneapolis, and I think it’s pretty laughable for the government to think that they’re going to slow things down by taking 15 of us.”
Recently, nearly 30 records were released as part of the prosecution of the 15, which showed that the federal government was spying on prominent advocacy groups opposing ICE efforts during Operation Metro Surge. Shortly after Alex Pretti was killed by a federal officer, undercover DHS officers were sent to Minnesota to conduct Operation Puppet Master, the records revealed.
Thoreson says she wasn’t shocked when this news came out, and she sees it as a way for others to understand that the charges had a clear motive on the part of federal prosecutors. “I think these charges could come for anybody that protested at ICE during outreach or Metro Surge at any time.” Now, the 15 await further court hearings to see where their fate lands.
No matter the decision, Thoreson says she is proud of what she has done, and hopes it inspires others to get active where they live. “I believe very strongly in the power of coming together as a community, and I’m going to continue to make those relationships with many neighbors, make those relationships across the city, make those relationships within my union and beyond, because that’s how we’re gonna make it through the hard times.”
