US Army troops on standby for Minneapolis deployment after Trump threatens to invoke Insurrection Act
The military could be deployed to quash protests that escalated after an ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good.
The US Army has ordered more military police to get ready for possible deployment to Minneapolis as fears of further disorder grow amid Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Listen to this article
Dozens of personnel from a military police brigade in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, have been issued the prepare-to-deploy orders, according to a defence official.
The troops would offer support to civil authorities in Minneapolis, the official told Associated Press.
Around 1,500 active-duty soldiers from the Army’s 11th Airborne Division based in Alaska have been issued similar orders, the outlet reports.
The Trump administration has already deployed thousands of Department of Homeland Security agents after a wave of unrest swept across Minneapolis amid a massive immigration crackdown.
President Trump has also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used law that would let him deploy members of the army to be used as law enforcement.
"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," he wrote on social media.
Read more: The Week in Pictures: Minneapolis still under fire, and Tory defections galore
Read more: Trump threatens to invoke Insurrection Act and send troops into Minneapolis
The warning came as Minnesotans took to the streets after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good .
The massive immigration crackdown has seen thousands of officers sent into the Twin Cities.
Tensions continued to escalate after a US Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a man and woman in their car after an attempted vehicle stop in Portland, Oregon.
Demonstrators marched on Minneapolis and other US cities, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh and Washington, D.C., in a series of nonviolent protests called “ICE Out For Good.”
The protests, which have been coordinated by several activist groups, are demanding ICE leave their cities, and are demanding accountability from officers.
Agents have pulled people from cars and homes and been confronted by angry bystanders demanding that officers pack up and leave.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey described the situation as not "sustainable".
"This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in and at the same time we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbours, to maintain order," he said.
He described a federal force that is five times as big as the city's 600-officer police force and that has "invaded" the city, scaring and angering residents, some of whom want the officers to "fight ICE agents".
At the same time, the police force is still responsible for their day-to-day work to keep the public safe.
In a statement on Tuesday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urged Trump to avoid sending more troops.
He asked the president “help restore calm and order” and said Minnesotans will “not be drawn into political theatre”.