Churches, libraries and breweries: Inside DHS' covert surveillance operation

Rev. Steve Sylvester, interim Pastor of the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Roseville, Minn., recently told his congregation that the Department of Homeland Security had surveilled their church during the federal immigration enforcement surge that happened in the state last winter. Jaida Grey Eagle for NPR hide caption

On a recent Sunday morning at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Roseville, Minn., Steve Sylvester, the interim pastor there, had an unusual announcement to make.

Standing at the altar, he told his mostly elderly congregation that the Department of Homeland Security had surveilled their church during the federal immigration enforcement surge that happened in the state last winter.

The revelation was part of a motion filed in federal court just a few days before the service, as part of an ongoing conspiracy case against ICE protesters.

According to government documents , an undercover DHS agent attended a meeting of ICE protesters at Prince of Peace in February. The agent captured the license plates of people there, and then compiled dossiers including their names, addresses, and information about their families and jobs, according to the motion.

"It feels weird. It feels like I'm living in 1950s Eastern Europe," Sylvester told NPR. "I don't know that it feels frightening or daunting. It just feels completely out of place and inappropriate."

He's far from the only person caught in the wide-reaching surveillance web spun by the federal government.

For months, the documents show, federal agents secretly made recordings of meetings held at churches, libraries, restaurants and schools around the Twin Cities. They infiltrated private group chats, sought the financial records of national labor unions, and gathered information on community members who had not been accused of any crimes.

"Quite honestly, it was breathtaking," says Rachel Levinson-Waldman, who directs the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "Just the scope of what was being revealed in terms of how deeply it had gone, how many government resources were being devoted to this."

Cody Sanders, interim pastor at the University Baptist Church in Minneapolis, recently discovered that an undercover agent wore a wire to a self-defense class held at his church this past May. Jaida Grey Eagle for NPR hide caption

Cody Sanders, interim pastor at University Baptist Church in Minneapolis, says his first reaction was surprise, then anger, when he heard that an undercover agent wore a wire to a self-defense class held at his church this past May.

"I do imagine people will look over their shoulder a little more and wonder, 'Is there someone here who's trying to gather information?' Or when they see a strange car in the parking lot," Sanders says. "I hope we can resist the kind of suspicion that this is likely to generate."

Sergio Manancero manages La Doña Cerveceria, a brewery in Minneapolis where an undercover agent attended a meeting in January, according to court documents.

Sergio Manancero is the general manager of the Minneapolis brewery La Doña Cerveceria, where an undercover agent attended a meeting in January.