The onion is slowing being peeled back to reveal who is behind the aggressive and often violent protests in Minnesota against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. RedState readers won't be surprised one bit to discover the chaotic protest movement is being funded by a shadowy network of far-left non-profits disguised as charities that feed money into loose networks of local groups, who, in turn, provide bodies for the protests.
If you've ever wondered how the local wine moms get their hands on those professionally-printed protest signs so quickly, there's your answer. (President Trump had an audience of Republicans in stitches last week when he riffed on the left's protest signs, saying he admired the quick turnaround and the shade of yellow they were using.)
Sitting atop this nefarious dark-money network funding the chaos is the Sunrise Movement, a left-wing organization originally founded to fight climate change, but has pivoted to fight the Trump administration in general. Its Twin Cities branch has been active in harassing and tormenting ICE agents carrying out immigration raids; they hold training sessions on "how to build a revolution" and track which hotels are housing ICE agents (then show up to cause problems).
READ ALSO: Web of National 'ICE Watch' Activist Groups Might Draw Common Funding From Far-Left MN Nonprofit
Trump Goes Nuclear on Walz: Stop the Violence Against ICE Now or I'll Bring Out the Really Big Guns
So, who's funding the Sunrise Movement? It up, of course, is George Soros. The corpulent, hard-left Hungarian immigrant and his Open Society Foundations have donated $2 million to Sunrise since 2019. Soros is always lurking in the shadows of the most wretched, odious progressive causes, checkbook at the ready.
Sunrise also receives money from The Ford Foundation, which, when it's not fomenting chaos at ICE raids, helps "to build grassroots Muslim power while advancing social, spiritual, racial, and economic justice for all people," and prides itself on "driving social justice and building movements across the globe." They've sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Sunrise Movement.
The Ford Foundation contributed $150,000 in 2024 and $550,000 in 2025, while the MacArthur Foundation—the 12th-largest private charity in America—gave $250,000 in 2024, according to tax filings and grant disclosures. Sunrise says it generally rejects "checks that come with expectations of input on our strategy." It also says donations go to support its local chapters with "materials, housing, technology, food, travel, training expenses, and more."
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— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 14, 2026
Left-wing activists in Minneapolis are targeting ICE with a highly organized on-the-ground tracking operation, complete with hotel and license plate lists, “noise demonstrations,” and training on how to “stop ICE.”
The groups at the forefront of this operation have… pic.twitter.com/VvdXaR6Q2P
Sunrise Twin Cities works alongside the radicals at Unidos MN and Defend the 612 to keep the protests going on the streets of Minneapolis.
Unidos, an "immigrant-led, BIPOC majority, multiracial, state-wide organization," leads a "rapid response" network through its affiliate group, Monarca. That network includes a 24/7 hotline that Twin Cities residents can call to report ICE activity. The group's trained "responders" are then dispatched to the area in an attempt to prevent ICE agents from making arrests. Like Sunrise, Unidos is backed by the Ford Foundation, which sent the group $400,000 in 2024. The left-wing dark money juggernaut Sixteen Thirty Fund sent Unidos $150,000 between 2021 and 2022, tax filings show.
Defend the 612 connects us nicely with "ICE Watch," the group that reportedly trained Renee Nicole Good how to disrupt ICE raids. Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent on January 7 after she drove her two-ton Honda Pilot at him; ICE Watch has been known to train its foot soldiers to use their vehicles as weapons.
Defend the 612 offers similar "ICE Watch Welcome & Orientation" trainings for those in the Twin Cities interested in "documenting ICE activity." It also offers "Community Response Resources" that provide guidance on "Tracking Federal Agents." This includes a list of known ICE vehicles operating in the Twin Cities—or a list of "License Plates of Abductors," as Defend the 612 describes federal immigration agents. The group accepts donations through Cooperation Cannon River, a Minneapolis-based "social and environmental justice" nonprofit that has received funding from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the left-wing dark money giant Tides Foundation, and the Solutions Project, a grantmaking organization founded by actor Mark Ruffalo.
So, basically, it's the usual suspects who, instead of their typical rent-a-body brand of protesting, have put real money into endangering ICE agents and protesters alike by encouraging violence. And they get away with it because there have never been any real consequences.
That may soon change, hower. President Trump said Thursday that he's had it with the violence and the attempts to impede federal law enforcement. If Minnesota's scandal-ridden governor, Tim Walz, doesn't get these groups under control, the president said he'll use the Insurrection Act to take care of business.
