Efforts to disrupt federal law enforcement in Minnesota have united individuals and organizations associated with the mainstream Democratic Party with self-described “communist” and “socialist” activists, a Washington Examiner review of political emails and social media posts has found.
In recent weeks, mainstream Democrats have sent messages to their supporters via email and social media, enticing them to either donate money to groups staging protests in Minneapolis or to join them personally in challenging law enforcement. Far-left groups, including avowed communists, are taking a leading role in organizing these same demonstrations.
Democrats such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY), and Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), as well as a host of state lawmakers and congressional candidates, have all called on their supporters to use StandWithMinnesota.com, a webpage purportedly maintained by local activists, to donate to “organizations doing the work on the ground” in Minneapolis. The Arlington Young Democrats, a club of young liberals living just outside D.C. — many of whom work as staffers in the capital — endorsed StandWithMinnesota.com as well.
Also directing supporters to StandWithMinnesota.com via email was the Communist Party USA, illustrating the alignment between the far and mainstream Left in protesting the enforcement of immigration laws. Individuals posting on forums related to anarchism and witchcraft have circulated links to the donation page too.
Organizations promoted by StandWithMinnesota include those operating hotlines to keep track of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, fielding “legal observers,” and organizing protests, according to its webpage. Marching and organizing alongside these on-the-ground activists are open Marxists, some of whom belong to a group that maintain friendly ties with a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization, for example, has issued calls to its followers on social media to join the protests in Minneapolis, delivered speeches at rallies in Minneapolis, and garnered hundreds of thousands of likes on Instagram for their efforts — showing the broad appeal of the group.
Videos posted by the FRSO show its members marching alongside other demonstrators and carrying signs bearing the organization’s name in Minneapolis and across the country. Some individuals in FRSO clothing were even present as protestors clashed with law enforcement following the shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent, according to a video posted by the group.
The FRSO describes itself as a “national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism” that is “building towards the creation of a new Communist Party based on Marxism-Leninism.” Throughout the years, it has maintained a cordial relationship with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a socialist organization that landed on the United States’s foreign terrorist organization list by hijacking planes, orchestrating suicide bombings, and shooting rockets at civilians.
“A militant and longstanding friendship exists between our two organizations,” the FRSO wrote the PFLP in 2018.
“The PFLP is proud to have you as partners in the worldwide [Marxist-Leninist] movement for socialist revolution,” the terror organization wrote, reciprocating the warm feelings.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation, a left-wing organization that has praised Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin and former Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, also organized and participated in anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, according to media posted to its Instagram page.
“Bring. 2nd Amendment,” the top comment on one of the PSL’s posts promoting a protest in Minneapolis reads, appearing to encourage activists to come to the demonstration armed. “No more signs and slogans.”
Unidos MN, one of the primary groups being promoted by StandWithMinnesota, has co-organized mass protest events alongside the FRSO and the PSL. Most notably, both groups promoted January 23 as a day to “ICE out Minnesota,” where activists were to skip school, stay home from work, and avoid shopping to put pressure on federal law enforcement.
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Conservatives have, in the past, taken flak from the press over the presence of extremist groups at their events.
The 2017 Unite the Right rally, for instance, was attended by a number of mainstream conservative activists; however, media coverage largely focused on the presence of white nationalist organizations. More recently, some on the Left used the presence of the white supremacists at the 2026 March for Life to link the anti-abortion movement to racism.
Other large mainstream liberal organizations encouraging their supporters to support or join anti-ICE protests via email include the ACLU, the Brady Campaign, MoveOn, and the Women’s March.
