Left-Wing Conspiracists Attempt to Connect Israel With Minneapolis ICE Shootings

Political progressives are attempting to draw a direct link between the ongoing unrest in Minneapolis over US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) and Israel, suggesting that the Jewish state has trained or infiltrated critical American governmental agencies.

A sprawling constellation of left-wing social media accounts and news outlets have argued that Israeli agencies have trained or assisted ICE, a federal agency responsible for conducting criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws. They claim that Israel has collaborated with ICE in surveillance and detainment strategies. On social media platforms such as TikTok, baseless claims that ICE agents are from Israel have gone viral.

“From Palestine to Minneapolis, ICE and Israel use the same playbook,” wrote popular, far-left social media pundit Sulaiman Ahmed on X/Twitter.

Protests in Minneapolis have intensified following a surge in federal immigration enforcement operations and two controversial fatal shootings involving federal agents this month. Demonstrations grew after large numbers of ICE and partner agents were deployed to the area under an expanded enforcement initiative, drawing criticism from local activists and officials. A statewide strike and mass rallies followed, then expanded nationally after the shooting of a Minneapolis hospital worker during an ICE operation, prompting a US Justice Department civil rights investigation.

Controversial leftist social media personality Hasan Piker was suspended from the Twitch streaming platform for spreading anti-Israel conspiracy theories and making antisemitic comments in attempt to connect ICE to the Jewish state.

“This is another big suck my d**k to all the f**king Israel d**k riders out there. You f**king rabid ultra-Zionist pigs,” Piker wrote.

“You run around going ‘Why are you tying this back to Palestine?’ Because this is precisely the same s**t. You Israel-first monsters,” he added.

Piker also posted that Israel had helped the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implement a “censorship regime” to label Americans “domestic terrorists” and carry out surveillance “on the basis of their anti-Israel & anti-ICE activism.”

“Two senior national security officials tell me there are more than a dozen secret watch lists that homeland security is using to track protestors (both anti-ICE and pro-Palestinians),” he wrote.

Other progressive commentators pointed out that ICE maintains offices in Tel Aviv, suggesting that the agency is controlled by Israel

“ICE isn’t just trained by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], they have a whole office on Israeli-occupied land,” wrote another left-wing account on X/Twitter.

However, ICE maintains a broad international presence through its Homeland Security Investigations division, operating dozens of offices at US embassies and consulates in more than 50 countries worldwide. While ICE is best known domestically for immigration enforcement, its overseas units primarily serve as investigative and liaison posts focused on transnational crime, including human trafficking, smuggling networks, financial crimes, and sanctions violations.

Josh Paul, a self-described “human rights activist” and a former director of congressional and public affairs for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, attempted to draw parallels between ICE and Israeli policy in the West Bank

“You have units of a security force that are imposed on the local authorities, imposed on the local police, that engage in checkpoints, detentions, including of children […] And it seems to operate broadly with impunity,” Paul told Responsible Statecraft, a publication of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a think tank critical of US support for Israel.

“It’s kind of every man for himself. They are obviously not operating under any standard operating procedures,” Anthony Aguilar, a US Army veteran and former contractor for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) who has made discredited claims against Israel, told the publication. “This is exactly how the Israel Defense Forces operate in Gaza.”

Aguilar claimed he witnessed the IDF shoot a child — Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamdene, known as Abboud — as the GHF was distributing humanitarian aid on May 28. The GHF was an Israeli and US-backed program that delivered aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terrorist activities and selling them at inflated prices. An independent investigation later revealed that Abdul had not been killed and was alive with his mother, exposing that Aguilar’s story was fabricated.

There is no evidence to suggest that ICE, which is part of the US government and charged with enforcing American immigration laws, has taken any direction from Israel in Minneapolis.