Jan. 17 (UPI) — Ongoing altercations between protesters and federal law enforcement spurred Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to mobilize the state’s National Guard on Saturday.
The National Guard units were not deployed as of Saturday evening but eventually are expected to help state and local police to maintain peace in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
Walz urged protesters and others to “stay safe and stay peaceful today” amid the protests and continued federal immigration law enforcement activities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies.
“Our public safety team has the resources, coordination, and personnel on the ground to maintain public safety and respond if needed,” Walz said. “Thanks to local law enforcement for keeping the peace.”
The governor on Jan. 9 ordered the state’s National Guard members to be “staged and ready” for a potential deployment after an ICE officer shot and killed anti-ICE activist Renee Good as she tried to flee as federal officers tried to arrest her for obstructing them on Jan. 7.
A second ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis that did not cause a fatality happened Wednesday night when a Venezuelan who ICE said had illegally entered the United States fled during a targeted traffic stop.
That man and two others assaulted the ICE officer with a snow shovel and a broom handle, and the officer shot the primary suspect in the leg to end the attack.
National Guard units on Saturday were “staging to support local law enforcement and emergency management agencies,” the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a social media post.
A federal judge on Friday restricted ICE’s use of crowd-dispersal tools, such as tear gas and pepper spray, to protect peaceful protesters and banned ICE from initiating traffic stops of protesters who have not broken any laws.
While a federal judge has restricted ICE activities, the Department of Justice on Friday opened an investigation of Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and others for potentially conspiring to impede ICE and other federal law enforcement in Minnesota.
President Donald Trump also has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota if protest violence continues, but he said there was no need to do so as of Friday, KSMP-TV reported.