Trump Threatens To Invoke Insurrection Act To ‘End’ the ‘Travesty’ in Minnesota Amid Growing Anti-ICE Protests

With anti-ICE protests continuing to roil Minnesota, President Trump is now threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy active-duty troops or federalize the National Guard in order to quell them.In a post on Truth Social Thursday morning, Mr. Trump wrote, “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 you [sic] attention to this matter!”The Insurrection Act grants the president the authority to deploy the military or federalize the National Guard to enforce the law when there is a rebellion or instances of violence. It can be used against the wishes of state officials. The last time the Insurrection Act was invoked was during the Los Angeles riots in 1992.Speaking to reporters at the White House Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she discussed the Insurrection Act with Mr. Trump. She declined to describe the situation in Minnesota as an “insurrection,” but said there are “violation[s] of the law in many places.” She said state officials are not “willing to work with our federal officers to bring peace to the streets of Minneapolis.”Ms. Noem also said she did not recommend that the president invoke the Insurrection Act, insisting that she merely “discussed” it with him, but said that he “certainly has the constitutional authority” to do so.When pressed on whether she thinks Mr. Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act, Ms. Noem simply said that the “president has that opportunity in the future,” and urged officials in Minnesota to cooperate with immigration officers.Mr. Trump’s warning comes in the wake of another ICE-involved shooting at Minneapolis on Wednesday night.The Department of Homeland Security said a federal agent was conducting a “targeted traffic stop” to arrest an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. The suspect allegedly tried to flee the scene and crashed his vehicle into a parked car, then fled on foot. “The law enforcement officer caught up to the subject on foot and attempted to apprehend him when the subject began to resist and violently assault the officer. While the subject and law enforcement were in a struggle on the ground, two subjects came out of a nearby apartment and also attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle,” DHS claimed on X. “As the officer was being ambushed and attacked by the two individuals, the original subject got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick.”The department insisted that the agent was “fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed” and “fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” which reportedly struck the “initial subject” in the leg. Hours after the shooting, the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, wrote on X, “Tonight a man was shot in the leg by an ICE agent on the Northside. No matter what led up to this incident, the situation we are seeing in our city is not sustainable.”“I have seen conduct from ICE that is intolerable. And for anyone taking the bait tonight, stop. It is not helpful. We cannot respond to Donald Trump’s chaos with our own chaos,” he said. The altercation comes a week after a federal immigration officer at Minneapolis shot and killed a 37-year-old American citizen, Renee Good. Democrats and liberal activists say the shooting was unjustified. Federal officials said the agent who shot Good was hit by her car as she attempted to drive off. After the news of the ICE-involved shooting this week, protests escalated, with demonstrators throwing fireworks at officers, according to the Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara. Mr. O’Hara said that protesters were committing “unlawful acts” and urged them to “leave immediately.”“This is already a very tense situation, and we do not need this to escalate any further,” he said. Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, wrote on X that state investigators were on the scene after Wednesday’s shooting. He wrote that he is “angry,” but urged residents not to engage in violence, as he claimed, “What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets.”“Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace,” Mr. Walz said. Earlier, he delivered an address to residents of his state urging them to “protest loudly, urgently, but also peacefully,” and to film ICE agents to “help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans, not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution.”

Trump Threatens To Invoke Insurrection Act To ‘End’ the ‘Travesty’ in Minnesota Amid Growing Anti-ICE Protests

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