Minneapolis: US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota, a law that allows the deployment of the military to handle protests, following demonstrations against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in the state.
According to Kuwait News Agency, Trump made the remarks on his social media platform, Truth Social, stating that if the politicians in Minnesota do not enforce the law and stop the agitators and rebels from attacking ICE officers, he would activate the Insurrection Act. This warning came after clashes between protesters and federal law enforcement in Minneapolis, which escalated due to a federal officer shooting a Venezuelan man accused of fleeing a traffic checkpoint and assaulting the officer. The unrest was further fueled by the recent killing of a woman by an ICE officer in the same city, which led to protests spreading to other states.
The Insurrection Act, which has been previously invoked by Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, grants the US president the authority to deploy the National Guard or armed forces in cases of insurrection or when local authorities fail to enforce federal law or maintain public safety. Trump had previously invoked this law last year in California in response to protests against ICE operations, using legal authority to deploy military forces domestically to address perceived threats to public order.
Under presidential orders, the US military deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles to protect federal facilities, while the Department of Defense announced the mobilization of 2,000 additional National Guard troops to secure the city and its surrounding areas.