Poet's Federal Trial Set For February, Community Continues Support

Minneapolis, MN — The federal trial for poet and activist Isabel “Isa” Lopez has been reset for 9 a.m. on Feb. 2, 2026, after several delays and cancellations. Lopez is facing four felonies from protesting federal agents carrying out an operation in Minneapolis in June. A jury made up of Minnesotans from around the state will hear Lopez’s case before Judge John R. Tunheim in courtroom 14E at the Minneapolis federal courthouse. On Tuesday, a magistrate judge recommended the denial of all of Lopez’s motions to dismiss charges.

Lopez was charged with two counts of assault on a federal officer and one count of obstruction during a civil disorder after she responded along with 200 other community members to a contentious federal raid on Lake St. on June 3, 2025. A few days after the raid, federal agents arrested Lopez following an interview with press in downtown St. Paul and charged her with another assault for allegedly hitting a federal agent during the arrest.

Since the arrest and charges, Lopez has been the recipient of waves of community support. A total of 1,700 people have signed a change.org petition calling for Isa’s charges to be dropped as of Nov. 28.

Isa Lopez dances with Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli during rally in front of the federal courthouse in Minneapolis in late September 2025.

Many events and protests have been held with community demands that the U.S. Attorney drop the charges. One of those events occurred during the morning of September 29, 2025, in front of the federal courthouse. A pretrial hearing that was scheduled for that morning was canceled by the court after neither party submitted testimonial evidence.

Isa spoke during the rally — not about her case — but about the “limiting of life” within colonialism. “They take out a lot of people that look like me and they put them in cages,” Lopez said, “whether it be prisons, whether it be detention centers. It is the limiting of life. It’s the fact that we do not have the permission to grow. And that is a violation to life itself.”

Lopez is represented by defense attorney Jordan Kushner, who’s submitted two motions to dismiss charges brought against Lopez — one for failure to state an offense and another motion to dismiss as unconstitutional — saying the charges violated Lopez’s freedom of speech.

Defense attorney Jordan Kushner spoke about his client Isa Lopez’s case at a September rally in front of the federal courthouse in Minneapolis.

Responding to Kushner’s motions to dismiss the charges, an 11-page report and recommendation signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Dulce J. Foster was filed on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. The report recommends denying both of Lopez’s motions to dismiss. Her current case number in the District of Minnesota is No. 25-230 (JRT/DJF).

USAvLopez-Report-Recommendation-11.25.25

Past coverage of Isa’s case:

ICE-Led ‘Homeland Security Task Force’ Raid Draws Large Mobilization in Minneapolis [June 5, 2025]