Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL)

COPAL helped organize anti-immigration-enforcement activism, including the January 23, 2026 ICEOUT MN protests. ² COPAL has also supported policies granting driver’s licenses to noncitizens and expanding benefits for illegal immigrants. ³ It has also expressed support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and has received funding tied to the Headwaters Foundation for Justice. ^{4  5}

Background

Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL) is a Minneapolis-based advocacy organization that advocates for left-of-center expansionist immigration policies. ¹

Advocacy

Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action advocates left-of-center policy positions. The group’s Minnesota Latino Vote operation distributes voter guides in Latino communities that encourage voting in favor of environmentalist policies, expanding rights for illegal immigrants, and other left-wing policies. ^{6  7}

Environmental Policy

COPAL advocates “Equitable Grid Principles,” a policy agenda that calls for reforming Minnesota’s electric grid based on critical race theory-aligned notions of equity, reparations, and other left-wing cultural principles. COPAL’s electric grid advocacy explicitly opposes coal and gas energy in favor of weather-dependent energy infrastructure. The group’s Equitable Grid Principles emphasize electric grid policies that prioritize “Indigenous Peoples,” “tribal sovereignty,” and environmental concerns. ⁸ COPAL argues that climate change is a central cause of Central American immigration to the United States. ⁹

Housing and Health

The group supports a state constitutional amendment creating the right to housing for illegal immigrants and a single-payer, universal health care system that includes illegal immigrants. ¹⁰

Black Lives Matter

In its 2026 Black History Month Instagram post, COPAL expressed its support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement that grew in response to the death of George Floyd, referring to BLM riots as “courageous protests” against “systemic racism and state violence.” ⁴

Immigration

Drivers Licenses

In 2023, COPAL supported Minnesota Bill HF4/SF27, legislation that guaranteed driver’s licenses for all Minnesotans, including noncitizens and illegal immigrants. ^{11  3} Also in 2023, COPAL advocated for the passage of legislation that implemented automatic voter registration and permanent absentee ballots for anyone who receives a driver’s license in Minnesota, with registration ostensibly restricted to those eligible to vote. ¹²

Anti-ICE Protests

COPAL has been a key organizer of protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota aimed at preventing federal agents from enforcing immigration law. COPAL participated in the ICEOUT MN January 23, 2026 anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis. ^{2  13} COPAL has received funding for its participation in such protests from the left-wing Headwaters Foundation for Justice. ⁵

In January 2026, COPAL hosted an anti-ICE observation training session where the group provided a legal training manual for protesters to learn how to legally witness and document ICE activities during law enforcement operations. Minnesota state Rep. Heather Keeler (D-Moorhead) encouraged the training session and claimed COPAL was finding “beauty in community” by encouraging Minnesotans to interfere with ICE operations. ¹⁴ As of February 2026, COPAL and more than 100 affiliated organizations around the state claimed to have trained an estimated 30,000 Minnesotans to be ICE observers. ¹⁵

COPAL also encourages its followers and members to participate in “No Kings” protests against the Trump administration. ¹⁶

Immigrant Defense Network

COPAL founded the Immigrant Defense Network (IDN) in 2025 under the COPAL Education Fund. IDN is a legal advocacy project that provides legal counsel and know-your-rights training to immigrant communities throughout Minnesota. IDN encourages immigrants and nonimmigrants to attend ICE search warrant executions and arrests as “observers.” ^{17  18}

Leadership

Francisco Segovia the founder and as of 2026 was the executive director of Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action. He previously worled as the director of the Waite House Center. He also worked for the Minnesota Civic Studies Initiative, a project of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. ¹⁹

In January 2026, Segovia was interviewed by Ross Douthat of the New York Times on COPAL’s involvement in anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, during which Segovia encouraged protesters to interfere with law enforcement efforts and face the “risk” involved in anti-ICE activism. ²⁰

Financials

In 2024, Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action reported $4,091,928 in total revenue, $3,636,629 in total expenses, and $3,058,139 in total assets. That year, COPAL received $1,866,129 in government grants (approximately 45 percent of its total revenue). ²¹

In January 2026, Minneapolis-based Headwaters Foundation for Justice announced $120,000 in “emergency funding” for organizations protesting the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minneapolis, including $10,000 in grants for COPAL. The Headwaters Foundation for Justice has received financial backing from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF), among other left-wing grantmakers. ^{5  13}