Trump Threatens To Invoke The Insurrection Act As Tensions In Minnesota Rise
In the wake of the murder of Renee Good by ICE agent Joanthan Ross last week, on Monday the Trump administration deployed 1,000 more immigration enforcement agents to Minnesota, adding to the 2,000 agents already deployed to the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. City and state officials in Minnesota filed a lawsuit to prevent the government from “implementing the unprecedented surge” in the state, calling the deployment unconstitutional. On Tuesday, six top prosecutors resigned from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota, rejecting pressure to investigate Good’s widow instead of Ross. On Wednesday, Governor Tim Walz issued a prime time address urging Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to “end this occupation.” He called the deployment of ICE agents to the state “a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”
On Thursday, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell tensions between protesters and ICE agents in Minnesota. In a Truth Social post, Trump justified his threat to invoke the 1807 law, which would give him the power to deploy the U.S. military against American citizens, saying it would prevent “professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.” Also on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed to reporters that anyone living in the U.S. should be prepared to “validate their identity” with citizenship papers in the event that ICE agents approach them on the street.