Minneapolis, Jan 15 (.) US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used federal law that would allow him to deploy troops domestically, as protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continued to roil Minneapolis following two shootings involving federal officers.
Trump’s warning came a day after a federal officer shot a man in the leg during a confrontation in north Minneapolis. US officials said the officer was attacked with a shovel and a broom handle before opening fire, reports CBS News.
The incident further inflamed tensions already running high after an ICE officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman, Renee Good, in the head a week earlier.
In a Truth Social post, Trump accused Minnesota’s leaders of failing to restore order, defending the actions of ICE agents operating in the city.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will invoke the INSURRECTION ACT,” he wrote, adding that such a move would “quickly put an end to the travesty.”
The Insurrection Act gives the president sweeping authority to deploy the US military or federal National Guard units for domestic law enforcement, even over the objections of state governors. Trump has repeatedly floated its use during periods of civil unrest, but has never invoked it.
In Minneapolis, the latest shooting prompted crowds to gather rapidly, with clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement stretching into the early hours.
Police said officers were pelted with rocks, fireworks, ice and snowballs, prompting requests for reinforcements from the Minnesota State Patrol and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.
Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara urged residents to stay calm in a late-night press conference, asking them not to add any more fuel to the fire.
“This is already a very tense situation, and we do not need this to escalate any further,” O’Hara said, adding that investigators would follow the case “to its logical conclusion”. Frey again called for ICE to leave the city.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, delivered a rare primetime address, urging Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “end the occupation”.
He further encouraged residents to document ICE activity, saying such evidence could be used in future prosecutions.
The Department of Homeland Security said nearly 3,000 ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents are now deployed in the area.
Meanwhile, a judge declined on Wednesday to issue a temporary restraining order against ICE operations in Minnesota, saying more evidence was needed.
The unrest has sparked into an all-out political fallout in Washington, as several career prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division resigned this week after learning there would be no federal civil rights investigation into Good’s killing.
Students across the Twin Cities staged walkouts earlier this week, while Democratic lawmakers accused the administration of quietly restricting congressional access to immigration detention facilities in the aftermath of the shooting.
As protests continue, Trump’s threat to deploy troops has deeply sharpened an already volatile standoff between the White House and Minnesota’s Democratic leadership, further raising discontent among masses over the federal government’s response to domestic unrest, and ruthless immigration enforcement, creating massive uncertainty among immigrant residents.
. . CDS