Taxpayer-funded network of Minnesota defense funds bailing out anti-ICE agitators
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 10 months ago • 19 commentsBy: Story by Mia Cathell, Washington Examiner
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A taxpayer-funded network of bail funds in Minnesota has been working in tandem to free activists arrested at protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement , enabling a revolving door of anti-ICE agitators who are regularly apprehended for impeding immigration authorities and then are immediately released from police custody.
This catch-and-release ecosystem in the sanctuary state, which is currently a hotbed of clashes between left-wing activists and ICE officers, lets repeat offenders continually return to the front lines of the resistance, ready to engage in more criminal conduct.
The Legal Rights Center, for example, is one of the Minnesota-based organizations helping to bail out arrestees and is soliciting donations on behalf of a newly established bail fund, set up specifically to assist anti-ICE activists and illegal immigrants detained in Minneapolis.
The center, generously funded by government grants, is promoting the People’s Bail Fund of Minnesota through Know Your Rights MN, a Legal Rights Center project providing informational resources for those navigating the state’s judicial system.
Last week, the project’s website was updated to feature a link to the bail fund, which just secured nonprofit organization status days ago. In the group’s 501(c)(3) announcement, the charity noted that there was much deliberation that went into deciding to become a tax-exempt entity, given that the bail fund is fully “community-led.”
Over the summer, PBFMN emerged to quickly fill a space in Minnesota’s bail fund sector that was left open by the Minnesota Freedom Fund. PBFMN’s business operations began about two months after the Minnesota Freedom Fund, the bail fund previously promoted by former Vice President Kamala Harris amid the 2020 George Floyd riots, announced that it is transitioning away from “transactional bail and immigration bond payments” toward broader “community power-building.”
Know Your Rights MN, under its bail section , lists PBFMN as one of the most efficient ways to now post bail in Minnesota, describing it as “a revolving fund … that pays criminal bail and immigration bonds.”
According to the donation portal , contributions to the bail fund can free many defendants over time. When an arrestee freed by the bail fund comes back to court, the group eventually gets the bail money back at the end of criminal proceedings and is able to use it to spring another suspect from jail.
Entailing “relatively simple” paperwork, the approval process simply requires a referral for bail support submitted via Google Forms , explains Know Your Rights MN.
PBFMN is actively accepting requests for “ICE protest cases” in Hennepin County, according to its Instagram account . However, at this time, the bail fund can only cover cases involving misdemeanor charges, but it may expand its services if enough donors back the bail fund.
Know Your Rights MN not only advertises the bail fund, but also urges its followers to donate directly to PBFMN and other “restorative justice” organizations, promoting them as “actions you can take” to support the abolition of pre-trial detention. According to Know Your Rights MN, cash bail “disproportionately impacts Black, Latine, Indigenous, and low-income people,” making it “a crime to be poor in Minnesota.”
The Black Immigrants Bail Fund , which works to ensure that “EVERY black immigrant” in ICE custody is set free, and the LGBTQ Freedom Fund , a bail fund that posts the immigration bonds of queer migrants, are among the other organizations that Know Your Rights MN is advertising, with the long-term objective of “dismantling oppressive systems like bail.”
Spearheading the movement’s end-cash-bail efforts in Minnesota is Know Your Rights MN’s parent organization, the Legal Rights Center, a criminal defense law firm focused on “racial equity” and representing indigent clients, preferably “people of color.”
Attorney General Keith Ellison (D-MN), a vocal opponent of ICE’s operations in Minnesota, once led the legal boutique . A pro bono practice, the Legal Rights Center touts that it is “financially supported by the State of Minnesota.”
The center received nearly $5.7 million in government grants between 2021 and 2024, accounting for roughly two-thirds of its overall revenue, according to financial records from Ellison’s office. The reported data, however, does not specify if that funding came from federal, state, or local sources.
More than $777,000 of those funds came from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, according to government contract analytics . The state department has awarded the Legal Rights Center several sub-grants aimed at “ending racial disparities and improving outcomes in the juvenile justice system,” as part of a U.S. Justice Department youth delinquency program.
The Legal Rights Center’s open call for donations to the People’s Bail Fund of Minnesota comes as the uprisings against ICE intensify across Minneapolis in response to the ICE-involved shooting of Renee Good. Dozens of anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis have reportedly been arrested in recent weeks on charges ranging from assaulting police officers to refusing lawful orders to disperse.
According to a Washington Free Beacon report , Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) encouraged residents to resist ICE, claiming that agents are indiscriminately “kidnapping people with no due process,” on the evening before Know Your Rights MN’s website was redesigned to display the bail fund.
Blackbird Revolt, a design studio making “Abolish ICE” merchandise , had partnered with the Legal Rights Center to overhaul Know Your Rights MN’s website, its bail page in particular, on Jan. 15.
As a resource hub, Know Your Rights MN provides legal guidance on protesting , including “general tips” pertaining to evading law enforcement detection during demonstrations, such as being aware of surveillance cameras, social media monitoring, cellphone data, and one’s own identifiable traits like tattoos, gait, and eye color.
The group offers “legal empowerment workshops” as well, hosted at various locations around Minneapolis to train youth as young as elementary school students in advocacy, organizing, and “protecting your rights when interacting with police.” Such training sessions additionally teach children about expunging criminal records, accomplice liability, and rules around search and seizure .
Some of the organizations stoking anti-ICE agitation have raked in ample funding from top grantmaking foundations on the Left. According to tax filings , the Legal Rights Center itself collected a total of $460,000 from the New Venture Fund, the largest pass-through funding vehicle belonging to a multibillion-dollar nonprofit organization managed by dark money behemoth Arabella Advisors .
The center’s past private grants also notably include $30,000 from the Pohlad Family Foundation in 2020, earmarked to protect “community during protests,” and $30,000 from the left-of-center Minneapolis Foundation in 2024 for "foster[ing] resilience,” especially among “justice-involved individuals.”
PBFMN, Know Your Rights MN, and the Legal Rights Center were contacted for comment.
Tags
Who is online
105 visitors
This is what I wanted to know.
As usual the violent thugs are not being held accountable.
Many thanks to the Washington Examiner for providing the facts.
As usual the violent thugs are not being held accountable.
Taxpayer dollars at work
What will be done about that?
Are you surprised?
No.
As a matter of fact, I sometimes wonder how many of our members aren't currently out in Minneapolis taunting ICE agents.
I imagine there are a few that will go out there and be a pain in the ass.
At the very least
On the other side of that coin I wonder how many of our members are currently reporting their 'suspicious' neigbours to ICE. Are you doing your part Vic or just hanging out waiting for 'reeducated' kids to denounce their parents? If you need help there are historical roadmaps you can follow.
Everything in this article is legal and above board, as far as I can see.
Normally, people pay bond and get out, that is the way it works. I would imagine most of the people arrested in this case can afford to put up the money. The whole purpose of the fund is to pay for those who cannot afford the bond.
The central theme of the article, the revolving door, has not been substantiated, and regardless, people still have rights to freedom of assembly, free speech, and freedom of association.
Your contention that "violent thugs are not being held accountable" is not true, no matter how you wish it to be. Firstly, characterizing people as violent thugs takes knowledge of their personalities which you do not have. Secondly, they still have to show up for their court dates. That is what bond is all about. More affluent people pay the bond and go on their way. It is the less affluent who are kept, not necessarily because they have any less rights or are in any way inferior to the more affluent people.
The Washington Examiner is good at writing stories to get their readers all fired up, but it is not so good at presenting all of the facts to give the full story, just the ones to make the most rage and clicks.
I see no reason for not bailing out protesters/resisters. With few exceptions they are doing Gods work.
What about those that obstruct LE from doing their Congress authorized duties? What about those that assault LE?
You ok with them too?
If they need bail, they were arrested. Period. They are now in the system. They will have a record and that alone has life changing implications.
Where do I give?
Here it is.
Happy Hunting!
I'm surprised you haven't already donated. Of course, taxpayer dollars going to it would constitute a crime.
You just show me exactly 1) How the money from taxpayers got from the tax payers to the bail assistance program, and 2) How this routing of money is actually a criminal offense.
Oh, yeah, what is the difference between the person in your picture and the ones shown here?
oh look, it's the willfully ignorant maga police, or wimps for short ...
They look more like wannabe left wing ‘resisters’ than anything alse
I am sure you have the statutes, correct?
The article clearly states that the taxpayer funding is well known. Are you saying that the Trump Administration and past Administrations broke the law by using grants to guarantee these
perps civil rights and keep poor people from crowding our jails?
Yeah, those private donations are only supposed to be used to destroy public monuments and build rooms for Trump's balls.
How are donations used to post bail worse than using taxpayer money to terrorize communities? How much is the public paying to deploy 3,000+ ICE agents to Minneapolis? How much is each of these arrest costing taxpayers? Doesn't the private sector handle these things more efficiently and cheaply than the government? Just how cost effective is this BIGGER Big Government operation?
If the protesters are really interfering with ICE operations then Noem must be lying about the success of the operation. If Noem is being truthful then just who is lying? Trump Republicans are lying about lying so they can spread more lies. That's the leadership Trump provides.