Indictment of Minnesotans for ICE Protests a Threat to First Amendment Rights

The AAUP condemns the federal indictment of fifteen Minnesotans-including Erik Davis, former president of the Macalester College AAUP chapter-for defending their community during the violent ICE occupation of Minneapolis earlier this year.

This federal prosecution highlights a broader pattern of the Trump administration to criminalize public dissent through broad conspiracy charges that conflate protected activism with illegal conduct. By targeting political speech, the Trump regime is attempting to create a dangerous climate of intimidation that directly undermines free expression, academic freedom, and democratic participation.

The AAUP takes no position on the ultimate guilt or innocence of any defendant. We do, however, reject efforts to use the criminal legal system to deter political opposition, suppress social movements, or chill constitutionally protected advocacy. The government bears a heavy burden when it seeks to transform political organizing into criminal conspiracy, and that burden is especially high where First Amendment rights are implicated.

Efforts to characterize organizing, communication, mutual aid, observation of government activity, or participation in protest movements as evidence of criminal conspiracy risk undermining those democratic freedoms.

The AAUP stands in unwavering solidarity with our colleagues and community members who refuse to be silenced. We demand an immediate halt to the weaponization of the justice system against political dissent and call for the protection of the fundamental democratic right to speak, organize, and protest.