Sixteen activist groups mobilizing against immigration agents in Minnesota have one thing in common: financial support from a nonprofit backed by the Soros family’s Open Society Foundations.
The Minneapolis-based Headwaters Foundation for Justice awarded $3,321,013 in funds and non-cash assistance since 2014 to groups that now seek to monitor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or protest the agency, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of tax filings, activists’ websites and their social media posts. One related protest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) airport led to around 100 arrests on Jan. 23.
The Headwaters Foundation did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the DCNF.
“What we are seeing in the streets of Minneapolis and across Minnesota right now is a fight for collective liberation in real time,” the foundation said in a Wednesday Instagram post announcing $120,000 in new grants. Other Headwaters Foundation grants from 2025 are listed on its website with unspecified dollar amounts.
“Your support of Headwaters will help us meet the ongoing need of funding organizing on the ground,” the post said.
Liberal philanthropy nonprofits disclosed millions in donations to the Headwaters Foundation for more than a decade, including $300,000 in 2020 from Open Society Foundations, which George Soros created and his son now leads. The nonprofit did not respond to a request for comment.
‘ICE Out’ Marches
Several activist groups that coordinated “ICE Out” marches on Jan. 23 were funded by the Headwaters Foundation: Mizna, Unidos MN, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Minnesota, Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL), Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), Jewish Community Action, Voices for Racial Justice, Minnesota Freedom Fund and the LGBTQ groups OutFront Minnesota and Gender Justice.
None of the organizations responded to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
Jewish Community Action board member Emma Kippley-Ogman was arrested at the MSP airport demonstration after the crowd blocked a roadway and violated conditions of their protest permit, according to police. Kippley-Ogman defended her actions in an op-ed, declaring, “We cannot keep on with business as usual when our federal government is engaged in escalating state terror right here, right now.” The Headwaters Foundation has given $183,013 to Jewish Community Action, tax forms show.
CTUL told supporters in a post to call its “worker defense hotline” if an employer “threatens you for taking the day off of work” to participate in the Jan. 23 marches. The organization received $1,085,750 from the Headwaters Foundation, tax filings show.
Unidos MN, formerly called Navigate MN, is also hosting an upcoming “healthcare worker resistance training” in February to teach medical employees how to “protect” patients during ICE searches, an Instagram post shows. Unidos MN received $90,250 from the Headwaters Foundation.
Minnesota Freedom Fund’s only Headwaters Foundation grant was for an unspecified amount. The fund also drew support in 2020 from former Vice President Kamala Harris, who encouraged the public to donate to bail out alleged Black Lives Matter rioters.
The Headwaters Foundation also gave at least $25,000 to Mizna, $385,000 to the Greater Minnesota Worker Center, $10,000 to the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, $171,000 to Voices for Racial Justice and $318,500 to OutFront Minnesota.
‘Legal Observers’ And Riot Gear
COPAL, the Indigenous Protector Movement and MN8, formerly ReleaseMN8, advocate for so-called observers to follow immigration officials in person.
MN8 and COPAL have a text chat and hotline, respectively, that Minnesotans can use to summon observers during ICE encounters. An online “Constitutional Observer” handbook from COPAL tells readers to wear an identifying badge and film agents — but avoid physically interfering with arrests. The Headwaters Foundation awarded $360,000 for MN8 through the years and $10,000 for COPAL in January 2026.
“As you document, demand that law enforcement present a signed judicial warrant,” reads the handbook. “While in many cases, they aren’t legally required to present the warrant, persist in asking.”
Gender Justice also invites viewers of its website to fill out a form for possible legal action if they have endured or witnessed “gender-based” mistreatment by immigration agents. The group has obtained “reports of agents calling women slurs and body shaming people” and “misgendering trans women,” among other allegations, its legal director claimed in Thursday testimony to the Minnesota Senate. The Headwaters Foundation gave $62,500 to Gender Justice.
In a Jan. 23 Instagram post, the Indigenous Protector Movement asked supporters to send money for gas masks, goggles, “legal observer vests” and other items for demonstrators.
“Federal agents shot and killed a man this morning,” the Indigenous Protector Movement’s post said, referencing protester Alex Pretti’s fatal scuffle with law enforcement in Minneapolis earlier that day. “Community defenders are on the streets RIGHT NOW. SUPPLIES NEEDED IMMEDIATELY.” Another collaborator on the Instagram post was MN ICE Watch, which activist Renee Good was volunteering for when she was fatally shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7.
The Indigenous Protector Movement did not respond to a request for comment. The Headwaters Foundation announced $10,000 in funding for the group in its Wednesday post, its first show of financial support.
Minnesota’s Somali Lobby
The Headwaters-funded groups Ayada Leads, Awood Center and CAIR Minnesota focus much of their advocacy in support of Somali migrants, a large Minnesota population targeted for deportation due to welfare fraud scandals.
CAIR Minnesota’s Somali-born executive director attended multiple Minneapolis anti-ICE demonstrations over the past week, footage shows. The chapter received $140,000 from the Headwaters Foundation.
Ayada Leads also provides political campaign training and previously recruited Somali-born Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota to start running for public office, according to its website. Omar is a fierce critic of ICE’s Minnesota operations and was reluctant to condemn violence against agents in a Jan. 11 interview.
Ayada Leads and the Awood Center did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment. The Headwaters Foundation awarded $280,000 to Ayada Leads and $190,000 to the Awood Center.
The Awood Center seeks to hire a new employee for anti-ICE “rapid response,” the DCNF previously reported. Its new rapid response program will help “prevent unlawful or coercive detentions,” among other goals, a job description says.
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