President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he could invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota to stop “professional agitators and insurrectionists” from attacking federal immigration agents.
Trump said the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy the military and federalize the National Guard, would quickly “put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State.” The president has threatened to use the act in the past, but his comments on Thursday morning mark the first time he has said the move is a possibility following the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent, which sparked massive protests in Minneapolis.
“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 institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s threat comes just hours after the Department of Homeland Security said a federal agent shot an illegal immigrant on Wednesday night. According to DHS, a federal agent was ambushed and attacked by three people while attempting to detain a suspected Venezuelan illegal immigrant. The suspects attacked the federal agent with a snow shovel and a broomstick, according to Homeland Security.
During the scuffle, the agent fired a defensive shot, which struck a subject’s leg, according to Homeland Security, which added that both the agent and the subject were transported to the hospital, and the two other alleged attackers were arrested.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed that a scuffle between a federal agent and another person took place. He did not confirm the federal government’s account that the officer was ambushed and attacked by multiple people. Protesters descended on the area near the shooting shortly after the incident and shouted at law enforcement. Some of the agitators threw fireworks at police officers, according to O’Hara.
Following the second ICE shooting in Minneapolis in a week, Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz said he was “angry,” adding, “What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets.” In a recorded address that was initially plagued by technical difficulties, Walz urged residents to “remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace” and told Minnesotans, “Don’t give [Trump] what he wants.”
Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey also addressed the ICE shooting on Wednesday night and said that ICE and Border Patrol agents are “creating chaos” in the Twin Cities area, and said that residents are asking the Minneapolis Police Department “to fight ICE agents on the street.”
“We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another,” he added.
LIVE UPDATES: Minnesota Dems Angry After Second ICE Shooting, Protesters Throw Fireworks At Police
Trump has suggested numerous times that the anti-ICE demonstrations in Minneapolis are organized and carried out by “professionals.” In at least one protest last week, organizers with the AFL-CIO told demonstrators that they were “moving out” after they hit their “goal time,” The Daily Wire reported.
President George H.W. Bush was the last president to invoke the Insurrection Act during the Los Angeles riots in 1992, following the acquittal of police officers who were accused of beating Rodney King. The federal intervention helped restore order within days, but significant destruction had already occurred.
