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.”
BLM COALITION BEHIND ANTI-ICE SHUTDOWN OF MINNEAPOLIS CHURCH SERVICE
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.
LIBERAL ACTIVISTS USE AGGRESSIVE ‘ICE WATCH’ TACTICS TO TARGET FEDERAL OFFICERS IN MINNEAPOLIS
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.
GUERRILLA-LIKE ‘ICE WATCH’ GROUPS BACKED BY TOP LEFT-WING GRANTMAKERS
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.