United States President Donald Trump threatened to implement the Insurrection Act on Thursday, after a federal agent non-fatally shot a man who attempted to flee law enforcement, causing anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests to once again swell in Minneapolis.
Implementing the Insurrection Act would allow Trump to deploy military forces in Minnesota in an attempt to quell the protests, which come as the deployment of ICE agents has become the focus of near-daily clashes.
"If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of ICE, who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump's post followed an incident in which an ICE officer shot and injured a Venezuelan man who attempted to flee a traffic stop in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
The US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE operations, said that during the attempted traffic stop, two people attacked the federal officer with a broomstick and snow shovel as he wrestled with the Venezuelan, who the DHS said was in the US illegally.
Second Minneapolis ICE shooting
On January 7, an ICE agent fatally shot a woman whom the DHS claimed had attempted to obstruct ICE operations in Minneapolis.
According to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE officers were attempting to free a vehicle stuck in the snow when a woman used her car to block the officers, along with "a mob of agitators that were harassing them all day," and ICE agents approached her car and told her to get out of the car repeatedly.
According to Noem, the woman "proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over."
Danya Saperstein contributed to this report.