Anti-ICE 'digital Minutemen' use military-grade surveillance tactics against feds

Garvey is  just one of hundreds of anti-government operatives training agitators to interfere with federal law enforcement. Last Saturday, Manola De Los Santos, co-founder of the People's Forum - a Marxist-Leninist organization funded by a China-based tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, with documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party - hosted an all-day "People's Assembly for ICE Out of NY!" at the group's headquarters on W. 37th Street.

"Adopt a corner!" leaders urged, instructing attendees to conduct surveillance tactics at fixed locations.

The user directed fellow "rapid responders" to page 35 for "security level questions." There, the manual advised recording a "daily information service" on "what the enemy appears to be doing, where the police net is operating and what points are being watched."

A Fox News Digital investigation reveals these groups are part of a nationwide web of at least 200 anti-ICE organizations that are building a civilian intelligence-gathering and "rapid response" system that trains, mobilizes and activates civilians to act as on-the-ground scouts, using the SALUTE method to collect data on federal authorities they cast as the "enemy," raising serious national security concerns. 

"This is mind-blowing. We have an entire nation of collectors against our country's law enforcement. It's extremely dangerous," said retired U.S. Army Green Beret Eric Schwalm, who first learned the SALUTE framework as a newly enlisted Army private, later applying it during patrols in Iraq as he fought an insurgency and then in Afghanistan as he trained Northern Alliance fighters to defeat the Taliban government. 

After reviewing the civilian training, operations and databases uncovered by Fox News Digital, he said, "If Iraqi resistance ran this level of operation against us, we couldn't have stayed past 2007. They didn't even need to shoot at us. Protests like this would have created a narrative nightmare."

Raising particular national security concerns, the network includes foot soldiers and leaders of the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, two professional protest organizations in the Singham network that openly support the People's Republic of China as an ideal state and declare they seek to dismantle the "hyper-imperialism" of the "American empire" from inside the "belly of the beast." The organizations didn't return requests for comment.

"FORM A CROWD. STAY LOUD," the flyer instructed its scouts.

"One of the things that our constitution has tried to be able to provide is an avenue for individuals to make sure that they are aware of any kind of tyrannical government," he said. "If we are supposed to be able to guard against foreign and domestic, there should be a mechanism for us to be able to identify that.

In a near-identical training last week, Garvey's session unfolded like a field briefing. She pressed new recruits to assess whether they were observing "a tactical unit," identify "types of munitions and how much" and determine whether officers were moving in "four, two, four, or six-man formations." She emphasized the importance of corroboration, instructing participants to "gather more people to confirm what you're seeing."

Garvey outlined three defined operational roles - recorder, supporter and monitor - and instructed participants to carry whistles with coded signals. Three blasts indicated an ICE operation in progress. Participants were told to wear the whistles visibly, so others would recognize that they were "part of the team." Garvey urged them to rehearse at home what to do if stopped by police.

Unassuming in appearance, with well-coiffed blonde hair and a soft-spoken, timid delivery style, Garvey defended the surveillance during the webinar, saying the targets were "public officials."

A spokesperson for the Hopewell Fund said in a statement, "States at the Core provides training for people to lawfully and peacefully observe law enforcement in their communities, and Hopewell is proud to be their fiscal sponsor."

Some of the databases have drawn the attention of a counterforce of independent programmers and technology specialists - including anonymous X users with handles such as @astrarce and @b****uneedsoap - who have attempted to disrupt or shut them down. At least one database has gone offline. Others remain active and continue to grow.

The activities of these surveillance networks potentially violate multiple federal laws. Federal statutes, such as 18 U.S.C. § 115 and 18 U.S.C. § 2261A, protect federal agents from threats and stalking, and violations connected to obstructing, striking or resisting federal agents are felonies. 

From there, the intelligence flows into databases.

He calls the database a new "journalistic" project of "Crust News," a Substack newsletter that has published articles against the "dictatorship" of "the USA's fascist regime" and the "terrorism" of its "modern Gestapo." 

Within minutes, Skinner responded to a request for comment but refused to answer any questions, including about his ideological motivation or funding sources, instead railing against the "fascist media sphere in the USA" and noting "your questions will be shared with the public."

Earlier that day, on Arnett Street in Elizabeth, N.J., a user alleged that "3 men took a female. There were 4 different cars," reporting the incident as "Immigration Enforcement" and uploading photographs of the vehicles and alleged agents. Pueblo Project Foundation didn't return a request for comment.

"Mask or not, they can't hide anymore," the platform promises, calling itself "civilian-powered intelligence" that "exposes bad actors" and "empowers direct action, public exposure and psychological disruption."

But its developers promise users "completely anonymous" privacy.

Under "Recent Reports" over the past 24 hours, it details "ICE sighted in New Britain, CT," on Corbin Avenue near a McDonald's, "ice agents using the target parking lot" on Colorado Boulevard in Los Angeles "as a base" and a silver Ford Explorer with "no front plate, whited-out/covered rear plate" on N. Aviation Boulevard in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

"Attempts to label community transparency efforts as 'illegal' or 'surveillance' often reflect discomfort with accountability rather than genuine concern for ethics or safety," Perez told Fox News Digital. "Oversight, documentation and public awareness are not threats to democracy - they are foundational to it."

"ICE Watch RI" and Alerta de Migra operate in Rhode Island with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, combining protest mobilization with logged sightings of federal officers.

"Any doxxing, harassing or stalking is unacceptable," he said.

Still, critics say, the database has the information for users to violate Fletcher's "terms of service."

Overnight, local residents in the Seattle Signal chats got alerts that they would have their first "Seattle rapid response drill" on Sunday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time.

The announcement will "follow the standard SALUTE format" to instruct responders where to go.

The alert warned: "don't be running red lights to get there first, don't be blowing whistles once you arrive."

Fox News Digital's Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.