Secret Signal chats reveal how anti-ICE agitators coordinated Newark riots
Users with secret monikers organize medic supplies including respirators, pepper spray wipes and protective pads
By Asra Q. Nomani , Michael Dorgan , Preston Mizell Fox News
Published June 4, 2026 7:34am EDT
At 11:30 a.m. on June 3, an activation signal went out on social media calling protesters and agitators to swarm Delaney Hall, the Newark, N.J. ICE detention facility that has become one of the nation's most contentious immigration battlegrounds.
"CURFEW IS OVER. BACK TO DELANEY," read an Instagram post, promoted by a fiery collection of anti-Israel, Marxist and Democratic organizations — from "Palestine Solidarity Working Group" and Al-Awda to Indivisible and 50501 — that have joined tumultuous against the ICE, Newark police and New Jersey state troopers over the past couple of weeks.
Within minutes, the call to action spread through secret groups on Signal, an encrypted messaging platform, activating hundreds of anti-ICE activists with secret monikers like "framed.unrest" and "Wicked Something," collaborating on transportation, logistics and supplies, like goggles, protections against pepper spray, respirators and protective knee pads.
A Fox News Digital investigation, gathering information on the ground in Newark, in secret chat groups on Signal and from scores of tax filings, strategy documents and social media posts, reveals the protests outside Delaney Hall are no organic outpouring of spontaneous rage. They are the result of years of strategic planning by a network of well-funded, well-organized groups that have once again exploited a local controversy to wage a wider attack on federal immigration policies and the U.S. in general.
The activities of this network have motivated a group of tech sleuths on the X — @DataRepublican, @Astrarce, @bitchuneedsoap and @gunshymartyr — to penetrate these groups, their Signal chats and their operations like a digital Avengers squad.
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