Flash Report: MAGA Communities Redirect Focus to Anti-ICE Groups on Signal After Federal Agents Kill Alex Pretti

TLDR

Open Measures researchers found that users on seven alt-platforms that cater to right-wing communities promoted longstanding narratives about left-wing extremism after federal officers shot and killed two observers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this month.

Background

US Border Patrol officers shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, in the streets of Minneapolis on Jan. 24 after he filmed an agent violently shoving two women. Weeks earlier, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, as she was following orders to move her vehicle.

Bystanders captured both incidents in videos that users subsequently spread on social media. Trump Administration officials initially described Pretti as a “would-be assassin” and claimed Good had attempted an act of “domestic terrorism,” descriptions that have since been debunked as false through video analysis. The killings, and federal officials’ characterizations of both incidents, elicited widespread condemnation and bipartisan scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement operations. Public polling conducted after Good’s death showed public support for ICE rapidly plummeting.

In the days after Pretti’s death, pro-Trump social media personalities attempted to redirect public outrage by calling attention to group chats community organizers in Minneapolis have used to track ICE activity in the city. MAGA-affiliated media figures claimed the chat groups threatened the safety of federal officers and implicated Minnesota public officials, demanding federal law enforcement investigate them for potential criminal activity.

The Trump Administration heeded these calls, as on a Jan. 26 podcast, FBI Director Kash Patel told right-wing activist Benny Johnson that he’d started an investigation of the group chats after seeing them in viral posts on X.

Claims Anti-ICE Activity in Minneapolis Linked to ‘Antifa’ Spread After Killings of Good and Pretti

As scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis intensified, partisan media reinvigorated dubious narratives associating anti-ICE organizing with the “radical left” or “domestic terrorism.” Several social media figures known for promoting sensationalist claims about “antifa” claimed the organizers in Minneapolis were conspiring to harm federal agents and urged Trump to crack down on their supposed efforts.

Open Measures researchers found that the number of posts discussing “Minneapolis” or “Minnesota” in relation to “antifa,” “radicalism,” or “terrorism” spiked on seven alternative platforms that predominantly harbor right-wing communities (after an ICE officer killed Good and again after officers killed Pretti). While many of these platforms saw posts that invoked these narratives the week before Good was killed, there were far fewer of them per day than there were after Good’s death.

Caption: A Timeline chart showing the daily number of posts across seven platforms that mentioned “Minneapolis” or “Minnesota” alongside a keyword related to left-wing extremism between Dec. 27, 2025, and Jan. 27, 2026.

Importantly, these spikes were nearly simultaneous with statements from Trump Administration officials promoting baseless claims about Good and Pretti – that they had sought to murder federal officers and their deaths had been necessary to prevent acts of domestic terrorism. Many users on the platforms we examined shared or repeated those statements, with Trump’s threats to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests driving many discussions.

MAGA Audiences Shift Conversation to Anti-ICE Chat Groups on Signal

About an hour after federal officers killed Pretti on Jan. 24, right-wing commentator Cam Higby posted on X that he had “infiltrated” Signal chat groups used by Minneapolis residents to [sic] “HUNT AGENTS AND IMPEDE THEM.” Higby, who promoted claims conflating anti-ICE community organizing with violent left-wing extremism during a White House roundtable on “antifa,” shared lists of usernames from the chat groups and called them “insurrectionists.”

Higby’s posts on X about the chat groups received thousands of shares and were aggregated by several right-wing media outlets. After Higby’s posts, users on all seven platforms mentioned above showed significantly more interest in Signal chat groups than they had in weeks prior.

Across all seven platforms, our researchers also observed users attempting to identify specific users of the publicized chat groups, trading links to join similar groups and encouraging the Trump Administration to act against them. (Open Measures is not publishing screenshots of those posts to protect the identities of people targeted in those posts.)

Caption: A Timeline chart shows the daily number of posts across seven platforms that mentioned Signal group chats between Dec. 27, 2025, and Jan. 27, 2026.

Of posts that received 25 or more shares on their respective platforms, many speculated that specific political figures in Minnesota may have been participating in the Signal group chats Higby shared.

What We’re Watching

Individuals and groups targeted in conspiracy theories and hyperbolic claims about “antifa” and left-wing violent extremism have been subjugated to deadly violence, death threats, online doxing, and offline harassment. In the interest of protecting private citizens, Open Measures will continue to monitor online conversations about the Signal chat groups used by anti-ICE organizers in Minneapolis and elsewhere in the US.