Jan. 15 (UPI) — President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to stop protests in Minnesota on Thursday after an ICE agent shot another civilian.
Trump made the threat on social media hours after an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer shot a man in Minneapolis, increasing tension between agents and demonstrators.
“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,” Trump wrote.
A statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the victim of Wednesday’s shooting was a Venezuelan immigrant who was in the United States illegally.
A U.S. president has not invoked the Insurrection Act in more than 30 years. It allows the president to send military troops to areas of civil unrest. George H. Bush used it in 1992 in response to the Los Angeles riots after four officers who were caught on camera beating Rodney King, a Black man, during a traffic stop, were acquitted.
The Insurrection Act gives military troops the authority to take actions they are normally prohibited from taking on U.S. soil, such as making arrests and performing searches
Protestors continued to film and shout down ICE agents after Wednesday’s shooting, calling for them to leave the city. Last week, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good while she was driving away in her vehicle in Minneapolis.
State and local officials have joined the calls from protesters to remove ICE from Minneapolis. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, seeking to have the influx of federal agents removed.
Gov. Tim Walz addressed the ongoing unrest on Wednesday, saying “news reports simply don’t do justice to the level of chaos and disruption and trauma the federal government is raining down on our communities.”
Walz said 2,000 to 3,000 federal agents have been dispatched to Minnesota and are pulling people over indiscriminately.
