NPR reports:

Early one morning this June, Treasure Thoreson was drinking coffee on her couch in Minneapolis when she heard a knock at the front door.

“I go and I see a woman standing there in office clothes, but with a Homeland Security vest over the top. And I see six more agents standing in my front yard,” Thoreson told NPR. “She said, ‘We have a warrant for your arrest, for conspiracy.'”

Thoreson, a special education teacher, was still in her pajamas. The agent let her change clothes and hug her partner goodbye before taking her into custody.

The government charged Thoreson and 14 others with engaging in a conspiracy to impede federal agents — a conspiracy it says culminated in the use of blockades outside the Whipple Federal Building, which served as ICE’s headquarters during the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota this past winter.

The government cited meetings and conversations on the encrypted messaging app Signal as evidence. At the advice of her lawyer, Thoreson declined to comment on the specifics of the indictment.

The charges against Thoreson are part of an escalating trend. NPR reviewed court records from the last five years to examine how the federal government is wielding one specific charge: conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, which can carry a sentence of up to six years in federal prison.

The statute, which dates back to the Civil War, has historically been used infrequently. But since President Trump took office last year, the Justice Department has charged more than three dozen people in at least 10 cases. All of them involve people protesting federal immigration enforcement. [Continue reading…]