FBI memo indicates online chats of immigration court watchers in NYC were monitored

NEW YORK — An FBI memo that claims “anarchist violent extremist actors” are targeting law enforcement cites a private text message chat that included immigration court observers, raising questions about whether the department is monitoring political activity, a copy of the document indicates.

The “joint situational information report,” released via the Freedom of Information Act to a watchdog group, indicates information about a May 2025 signal chat involving immigration court watchers was passed to authorities by “a sensitive source with excellent access,” the document states.

The memo, which references the NYPD, claims activists were collecting photos and videos of law enforcement officers and sharing instructions on accessing immigration courtrooms – activities that are protected and legal. The memo was first reported by the Guardian newspaper.

“Discussions with the ‘courtwatch’ group chat also included instructions on where to go and what to say in order to gain access to federal courtrooms,” the memo states.

City Comptroller Brad Lander, speaking outside 26 Federal Plaza on Friday, called the apparent monitoring an “egregious violation of Constitutional rights.”

“The FBI is reverting to the days of J. Edgar Hoover,” he said. “Court watching is constitutionally protected, nonviolent legal activity, unlike what the ICE agents are doing,” he said.

“I’m concerned as well about the involvement of NYPD … From what we can tell, it’s an FBI investigation, but that the NYPD was looped into, or at least aware of, through their joint activities.”

According to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter, there have been dozens of “courtwatch” Signal chats involving immigration advocates in New York City. It’s unclear exactly which group chat that the feds referenced.

While the document indicates in the header it is a “joint” memo with the NYPD, it states on the second page it was prepared by the FBI’s New York office.

In a statement, an NYPD spokesperson said, “This is not an NYPD document” and said it was related to a specific investigation.

“It references a broader counterterrorism investigation into a range of possible criminal activities, including weapons training, violence against law enforcement, property damage and destruction, and discussions about bomb-making,” the spokesperson said.

The investigation, the NYPD statement said, was reviewed by the monitor charged with vetting police surveillance. That monitor was created as part of the 1985 Handschu consent decree barring the department from surveilling political groups.

Ryan Shapiro, the executive director of the group Property of the People, which obtained the memo, noted the document is titled “Joint Situational Information Report FBI and NYPD.”

“The document is clear. (The) NYPD is involved. And unless the NYPD wants to claim the FBI is lying in the document, everything else is just smoke and mirrors to distract from the plain fact that NYPD is involved in spying on peaceful immigration activists,” said Shapiro, who estimates his Washington, D.C.-based group has obtained more than a million FBI documents through FOIA over the past 20 years.

In a statement, the FBI New York office did not identify a specific investigation as the NYPD’s statement did.

“While we cannot confirm or deny the existence of any FBI-authored intelligence bulletin, we routinely share information to our law enforcement and intelligence community partners alerting them of potential threats,” the FBI statement said.

“The FBI takes all threats to public safety seriously, including those posed to law enforcement and public safety officials. The FBI has, and will continue to, monitor any indication of potential escalating violence in accordance with our predicated investigative guidelines.”

Lander has been one of the elected officials at the center of protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Groups including the New York Immigration Coalition, whose works has been lauded by elected officials like Lander and Rep. Dan Goldman, have maintained a regular presence at the lower Manhattan facility in recent months.

Lander was arrested in June and released without charges and arrested again in September and charged with obstruction of justice.

An agency spokeswoman this week made claims about Lander being obsessed with physically and rhetorically “attacking,” law enforcement, which he has not legally been accused of, after he elected to go to trial on misdemeanor charges alleging he blocked hallway access on a non public floor at 26 Federal Plaza while trying to inspect the conditions migrants are being detained in.

“Here are the facts: Brad Lander showed up to 26 Federal Plaza unannounced with agitators and media and proceeded to obstruct law enforcement and cause a scene,” said ICE spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin recently. “Brad Lander’s obsession with attacking the brave men and women of law enforcement, physically and rhetorically, must stop NOW.”

Lander said Friday it appeared ICE agents had backed off of targeting people going into their asylum hearings at the federal office building.

The apparent move, he said, makes it harder to aid migrants being targeted.

“When it’s at court, we’ve had some chance to connect with people and get them lawyers, but if they’re just taken off the streets, (we) don’t even know where to go,” he said.