January 9, 2026 – Who is behind the anti-ICE protests we’re seeing explode across the US?

In Email/Dossier/Govt Corruption Investigations, Featured Timeline Entries by Katie Weddington

For years, I’ve been working independently but today I had the honor of working with a remarkable team at @FoxNews Digital, where I just joined as senior editor of investigations, and bring you back a story like none other I’ve been able to publish.

I worked all day with video editor @LanumNikolas and reporter @M_Dorgan — please follow them! — and we established, step-by-step that a network of groups – self-described as socialist, Marxist-Leninist or communist – are coordinating the multi-city mobilization that we’re seeing from NYC to Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Burlington, Vt., Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, vilifying @DHSgov @Sec_Noem and ICE officers and sowing discord on the streets.

Read our story here and look at Nik’s photos, documenting the evidence: https://foxnews.com/us/socialist-groups-ramp-up-nationwide-anti-ice-protests-target-noem-nyc

It’s reporting that you won’t see just about anywhere else, as most media outlets don’t name the names of the groups behind the protests and don’t identify the ideologies they embrace.

Watch Nik’s video ⬇️ because, and you’ll see the receipts and you’ll hear the honest remarks of a young protestor we interviewed.

“I personally identify as a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, following the teachings of [former communist China leader] Mao Zedong,” said demonstrator Tye Burrus, 18, who held a handmade sign depicting a hammer and sickle smashing a giant ice cube.

Burrus, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation who self-identifies as a transgender woman, said losing faith in the Democrats and never having faith in the Republicans led to embracing communism. ​

“So now I am a communist,” Burrus said.

Going into the streets of the New York City protest and studying protests nationwide this is who we found from the far-left network:

1⃣ Freedom Road Socialist Organization @FreedomRoadOrg – A self-described communist group immediately dispatched its members to the site of the killing in Minneapolis, and they are the ones behind clashes with ICE officers. The FBI has investigated the group – whose members wear distinct red swag marked with FRSO – as a “revolutionary socialist and Marxist-Leninist organization,” citing alleged ties to foreign Marxist-Leninist extremist groups, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. Link to the internal FBI documents made public https://vault.fbi.gov/freedom-road-socialist-organization/freedom-road-socialist-organization-final/view

2⃣ @PeoplesForumNYC — Protest leaders arrived at AM, just before the 9 AM start for the protest in New York City, hauling two shopping carts full of bullhorns and pre-made black-and-white signs, printed with the message, “JUSTICE FOR RENEE NICOLE GOOD,” and a photo of Good, with “PARTY FOR SOCIALISM AND LIBERATION” across the bottom. It’s a nonprofit activist hub for groups include @AnswerCoalition, and it’s received funding from a tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. It stage-managed most of the day’s protest in NYC.

3⃣ Party for Socialism and Liberation @PSLNational — Their organizers handed out the signs asking folks standing around: “Want a sign?” They organized protests across their national network, and they work closely with The People’s Forum.

4⃣ Democratic Socialists of America @DemSocialist — Its members joined the NYC march, wearing their distinct red beanies with DSA across the front, while its member NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani repeated the talking points of the socialist groups, saying the ICE officer “murdered” the woman. They are also organizing protests across their national network.

5⃣ Revolutionary Internationalist Youth from City University of New York — The carried handmade signs and copies of their newspaper, “The Revolution,” which said they promoted “the program of Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky.”

6⃣ Spartacist League members from the U.S. chapter of the International Communist League – They distributed copies of “Workers Vanguard,” which calls itself a “Marxist Newspaper”

The socialist-adjacent groups joining them in using this moment to organize protests are:
7⃣ @IndivisibleTeam – Closely aligned with the Democratic Party, it organized #HandsOff #NoKings marches all year and is now organizing protests nationwise.

8⃣ 50501 – It also organized #TeslaTakedown protests against Elon Musk and is throwing its muscle behind anti-ICE protests.

9⃣ @RefuseFascism – They moved through the crowd in NYC, handing out slick, freshly printed pamphlets titled “The People’s Indictment of Donald Trump,”

Why does it matter to know these names?

Stu Smith @thestustustudio, a @ManhattanInst researcher who studies domestic extremism, explained, “I just wish the average American realized that there is a network of far-left agitators in America who are Marxist-Leninists, socialists, Maoists and even North Korean apologists.”

“As these ideologues say, the issue is never the issue,” he told us. “It’s all about the revolution. After this terrible situation in Minneapolis, they used social media and their networks to mobilize and get on the streets to hurt America.”

You’ve heard me say it before. Look at the evidence yourself. Read the signs shared by journalists like @MrAndyNgo. Follow the money with data scienctists like @DataRepublican. Study the breadcrumbs. I’m honored to work with this team to bring our reporting from the streets back to you.