As a standoff between demonstrators and authorities escalated over immigration enforcement in Minnesota, President Donald Trump warned he could invoke the Insurrection Act.
On the 15th, local time, Trump said on his social media, Truth Social, "If Minnesota's corrupt politicians do not uphold the law and do not stop the agitators and insurrectionists who are attacking the patriots of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who are just doing their job, I will invoke the Insurrection Act, used by several presidents in the past, to swiftly end the disgrace occurring in that once-great state."
Both the Minnesota governor and the Minneapolis mayor are Democrats, and the remark is being interpreted to mean he would invoke the Insurrection Act if they do not work to ease the intensifying protests in their jurisdictions.
The U.S. Insurrection Act authorizes the president to deploy the military domestically under specific conditions defined by law, such as insurrection.
Earlier in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the 7th, an ICE agent fatally shot an American woman, Renee Nicole Good, who resisted during a vehicle stop, sparking ongoing protests against the Trump administration's hard-line crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
The day before, an immigration enforcement officer reportedly opened fire while arresting a Venezuelan man in north Minneapolis on suspicion of illegal stay. The man is in a condition that is not life-threatening.