Trump threatens to invoke Insurrection Act in Minnesota amid ICE shooting fallout

WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was considering invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 and bringing in the military to quell protests in Minneapolis, as city residents and state lawmakers demand federal immigration agents leave Minnesota.

It would be a major escalation for the White House, which has for months toyed with using the extraordinary authority to send federal troops into U.S. cities as opposition continues to the administration’s mass deportation operation. And the president’s threat comes just weeks after the Supreme Court limited his other options for deploying certain military forces domestically.

Writing in a post on Truth Social Thursday morning, Trump urged Minnesota lawmakers to “obey the law” and stop what he called “professional agitators and insurrectionists” from interfering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who have surged into the state this month.

Otherwise, the president wrote, he would invoke the Insurrection Act and “quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State.”

The Insurrection Act allows the president to deploy U.S. military forces and National Guard units within the country under certain circumstances, such as civil unrest, insurrection or rebellion. The measure is the White House’s primary workaround for the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which blocks the president from using the military for domestic law enforcement.

Presidents have invoked the Insurrection Act just a handful of times throughout history, most recently in 1992, when then-President George H.W. Bush called up troops to suppress the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.

In both his first and second administrations, Trump has threatened to use the act to crack down on demonstrators. The president in 2020 was talked out of invoking the Insurrection Act to respond to nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And over the summer, Trump again said he was considering the act as a reply to anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.

The White House has so far stayed away from that drastic action, instead claiming a separate legal authority known as Title 10 to federalize state National Guard members to assist law enforcement in several U.S. cities.

Trump has argued that Title 10, which relates to use of the military when the U.S. is under foreign invasion, applies to domestic protesters because they have interfered with federal immigration enforcement.

But the Supreme Court in December slapped new limits on the administration’s power over the National Guard, ruling that Trump could only invoke Title 10 in areas where the military can legally execute the law. Because the Posse Comitatus Act generally bars such domestic law enforcement, the foreign invasion legal authority does not apply, the justices said, pointing out that the military can only be deployed inside the country in exceptional circumstances.

The court’s ruling, however, did not change the Insurrection Act’s status as the primary vehicle for the president to sidestep Posse Comitatus Act restrictions.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Democrats responded to Trump’s Insurrection Act threat with alarm — while some Republicans claimed it was merely a call on Minnesota authorities to take more aggressive action against protesters.

Minnesota Representative Angie Craig told reporters that ICE operations in Minneapolis and resulting protests, which have already resulted in at least two shootings involving federal agents, was a “very difficult situation” and that Trump was “only making things worse” with his comments.

In a post on X, the House Democrat accused the president of adding fuel to the fire.

“His blatant disregard for the pleas of the governor, the mayors and local law enforcement to deescalate the situation by removing ICE from Minneapolis and Minnesota shows he doesn’t give a damn about the safety of Minnesotans,” Craig wrote. “I’m calling on my Republican colleagues to grow a spine and finally stand up to this administration’s antics that are endangering Minnesotans.”

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar called the Insurrection Act threat a “blatant act of authoritarianism.”

But some Republicans were less concerned. Speaking to Newsmax Thursday morning, Ohio Senator Jon Husted said Trump had urged Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to bring state resources to bear against “those agitators, those lawbreakers” protesting ICE operations.

“The mayor and the governor of Minnesota are encouraging people to intervene, to put themselves in danger, to endanger ICE agents,” said Husted. “What the Insurrection Act threat means to me is, Governor Walz, Mayor Frey, take action or you’ll see an escalation.”

The threat of military forces entering Minnesota comes just days after an ICE agent shot and killed a Minneapolis woman in her car — a shooting that sparked national outrage and spurred Frey to demand federal immigration agents “get the fuck out” of the city.

The Homeland Security Department and Trump administration have maintained the agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, 37, in self-defense, despite videos that call that claim into question. The agency has also said the agent in question experienced “internal bleeding to the torso” after being hit by Good’s Honda SUV, though it has said little about the severity of those injuries.

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