Documenting Deportation Flights at MSP Airport
Over the past several months, an "aviation geek" in Minnesota who goes by ottergoose on reddit has been tracking, photographing, and posting his documentation of deportation flights online.
Tag: homeland security
🦄 Racism & Far-Right
Chuds on Parade 2: Trump’s Homeland Security Advisory Council
Washington, DC – President Donald Trump has made his appointments to the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), so Unicorn Riot started looking into their backgrounds. The list is a who’s who of troublesome and generally bigoted individuals, not unlike Trump’s cabinet. A failed political candidate…
🦄 Police
Plainclothes Feds Arrest Poet After Interview With Press, Unseal Conflated Complaint
Saint Paul, MN — Plainclothes federal agents arrested 27-year-old Isabel Lopez on Monday after she left an interview with the press about being assaulted by feds during a protest against what many thought was an immigration raid on Minneapolis’ Lake Street a week prior. On…
ICE-Led ‘Homeland Security Task Force’ Raid Draws Large Mobilization in Minneapolis
Minneapolis, MN — Dozens of federal agents in a newly minted federal task force raided a business on East Lake Street in South Minneapolis on Tuesday morning (June 3) and were quickly met with a raucous crowd amid toxic smoke conditions from Canadian wildfires. The…
🦄 Borders & Migration, Police, Tech
New Federal Task Forces Under 287(g) Could Form ‘ICE Army’ From National Guard, State, Local & College Police
The Trump Administration has dramatically ramped up arrests and sweeps of people residing in the U.S., with new highly visible incidents and court cases unfolding every week and reaching new heights by mid-May. A new development could spell much larger scales of activity on American…
‘Mobile Field Force’ Policing Model Funded for Milwaukee Republican National Convention
The 2024 Republican National Convention starts on Monday, July 15, and will run for four days. This report covers the latest Milwaukee developments and a quick historical rundown about the huge security setups at previous conventions and special events.
🦄 Investigative, Police, Tech
Criminal Intel Files Show Facial Recognition, Warrantless Surveillance in Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN – Documents obtained via a series of public records requests from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) provide rare insight into police intelligence gathering. The documents include case numbers in which facial recognition was used, details about systems that gain access to vehicle…
🦄 Global, Investigative, Tech
Hacks in Wartime: Railroad & Radio Jamming, Industrial Systems Targeted Amid Russia-Ukraine War
Several days of war triggered by the Russian Federation invading Ukraine have led to turmoil in financial markets and new policies barring Russian businesses and aviation from Western countries, while shadowy hacks and ‘information warfare’ add to the chaos.
We took a scan of the…
Aerial Surveillance in Twin Cities Frustrates, Alarms Residents
When protests broke out several weeks ago in a Minneapolis, Minnesota suburb over the police killing of Daunte Wright, tensions were already high thanks to the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer found guilty of murdering George Floyd. State and local authorities were ready…
🦄 Investigative
Icebreaker Pt 11 – Bush/Clinton Era Customs Investigators Manuals
United States – Unicorn Riot obtained more than two dozen Homeland Security policy manuals including several from the 1980s and 1990s – 195 pages in all. This is the last release in our Icebreaker series.
While some of these documents have appeared elsewhere in various…
Direct Actions Disrupt DC to Demand Climate Action
Washington, DC – Decentralized climate protest actions plan to “block key infrastructure to stop business-as-usual” in the US capitol today to demand politicians take action to address climate change.
Groups that announced plans to carry out disruptions and protests across DC include Black Lives Matter…
🦄 Investigative
Icebreaker Pt 6 – Leaked ICE Special Response Team Handbook for Planning and Executing Armed Raids
United States – Unicorn Riot obtained confidential Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agent policy manuals, which were in effect during the agency’s earlier years under presidents Bush and Obama. Icebreaker Part 6 covers ICE’s “Special Response Team” (SRT) area of doctrine, the section of…
🦄 Borders & Migration
New Years Blockade at Youth Detention Tent City
Tornillo, TX – Indigenous people, migrant rights activists, and their allies are entering the second week of a protest occupation at the gates of the USA’s largest detention facility for immigrant children. The controversial prison camp, which exclusively holds immigrant minors, is based in Tornillo,…
🦄 Borders & Migration
Military and Militias Deploy to US/Mexico Border to Confront Caravan of Asylum Seekers
President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of active-duty soldiers to the US/Mexico border to support the Department of Homeland Security in stopping a caravan of Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the United States.
A plan enacted on October 26, called “Operation Faithful Patriot“,…
🦄 Borders & Migration
ICE Occupation Emerges at Denver Field Office
Centennial, CO – In the evening of Sunday, July 29, 2018, a coalition of many local immigrant rights and social justice groups gathered outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Denver Field Office to hold an encampment vigil.
Watch our live coverage below from Monday…
🦄 Investigative
Icebreaker Pt 2 – Confidential Homeland Security Asset Forfeiture and Search and Seizure Handbooks
Unicorn Riot obtained confidential Department of Homeland Security manuals showing how DHS’s largest investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations, advised its agents to conduct their operations. Part 2 of the Icebreaker series covers the HSI “Search and Seizure” and “Asset Forfeiture” handbooks.
Some of the material…
🦄 Borders & Migration, Community, Prison
Sanctuary Movement Leader, Arturo Hernandez Garcia, Detained by ICE While at Work
Denver, CO – In October 2014, Arturo Hernandez Garcia was the first person in Colorado to enter into sanctuary from deportation. He spent nine months on the grounds of the First Unitarian Society of Denver, where Jeanette Vizguerra is currently in sanctuary, until he was…
🦄 Racism & Far-Right
Confrontation Looming As Neo-Nazi Groups To Hold Rally in Pikeville, KY
Pikeville, KY – Tensions are running high as the scheduled date and time approaches for the “Take A Stand for White Working Families” rally planned by the Traditionalist Workers Party (TWP), a neo-Nazi hate group with a history of violence. Unicorn Riot is on the…
FEMA Trains Local Police for “Field Force” Crackdowns
Unicorn Riot has obtained a federal training manual, Field Force Operations, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP). The federal government uses this document to train local law enforcement in techniques for quelling protests. It was acquired during our reporting on…
🦄 Borders & Migration
Twin Cities Young Muslim Collective Holds CVE Forum
Minneapolis, MN – On Friday, October 28, the Young Muslim Collective (YMC) of the Twin Cities hosted an informational presentation and discussion panel about Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), a counter-terrorism initiative of the United States’ Department of Homeland Security.
Unicorn Riot was in attendance and…
New Cleveland RNC Police & Military Docs: FEMA Base to Setup at NASA
A trove of new documents exposes how Cleveland’s impending Republican National Convention will subject the public to a massive domestic military operation. Following decades of planning and millions of dollars spent, the RNC this July will amass into an unprecedented security state, constricting the constitutional…
Hundreds of Students Walkout in Minneapolis to Protest Deportations
Minneapolis, MN – On Wednesday, January 20th, 250-300 students walked out of public high schools across the Twin Cities to demand an end to ICE’s deportation of Immigrant families. The students assembled at MLK park in South Minneapolis and marched to Lake Street to protest…