Trump Threatens Insurrection Act as ICE Violence Escalates After ICE Shooting in Minneapolis
Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and deploy military forces to Minneapolis following days of escalating protests and another shooting involving federal immigration officers.
The warning came after Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that a male protester from Venezuela was shot in the leg Wednesday night during an encounter with federal agents, an incident that further inflamed tensions already high after the fatal shooting of a Minnesota woman earlier this month.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump accused Minnesota leaders of failing to control what he called “professional agitators and insurrectionists,” while praising ICE officers as “patriots” simply doing their jobs. He warned that if state and local officials did not “obey the law,” he would invoke the Insurrection Act to “put an end to the travesty” unfolding in what he described as a “once great State.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the man shot Wednesday night was injured during a confrontation in which agents claim they were attacked. That account has not been independently verified.
The shooting occurred just days after Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother and poet, was fatally shot in the head by an ICE officer on Jan. 7 while sitting in her vehicle near her home in Minneapolis.
Within hours of Good’s death, the Trump administration defended the officer involved and alleged that Good attempted to use her SUV as a weapon. Minnesota officials and community members have strongly disputed that narrative, pointing to bystander video and the administration’s refusal to allow a joint federal-state investigation, which is standard in officer-involved shootings.
The fallout from Good’s killing has been swift and far-reaching. Senior officials within the Justice Department resigned after the Civil Rights Division declined to open an investigation, and six federal prosecutors in Minnesota stepped down after the DOJ pushed to investigate Good’s widow. Civil rights advocates say the moves underscore a broader lack of accountability surrounding the federal response.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has sharply criticized the Trump administration, saying the surge of federal immigration enforcement—estimated at up to 3,000 officers deployed across the state—has created widespread fear and instability.
In a video address, Walz said reports fail to capture “the level of chaos and disruption, and trauma the federal government is raining down upon our communities,” adding that the situation “long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement.” He described accounts of chemical agents used against protesters, residents detained without cause, and U.S. citizens allegedly swept up in enforcement actions at grocery stores, bus stops, and even schools, urging Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “end this occupation.”
Trump’s threat marks a significant rhetorical escalation, but it is not unprecedented. He has repeatedly raised the prospect of invoking the Insurrection Act without ever formally doing so. Most notably, during the 2020 protests following the murder of George Floyd, Trump warned governors to deploy the National Guard or face federal intervention. He again floated the idea in June 2025 amid large anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.
In both instances, Trump stopped short of invoking the Insurrection Act itself, instead relying on other legal authorities, including Title 10, to federalize the National Guard and deploy troops. Legal scholars have noted that formally invoking the Act would represent a far more aggressive and constitutionally fraught step.
The Insurrection Act, a rarely used pre-Civil War law, allows a president to deploy U.S. military forces or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, potentially over the objections of state leaders.
It has been invoked more than two dozen times in U.S. history, most recently in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Los Angeles at the request of California officials during widespread unrest.
Civil rights groups and veterans’ organizations warn that the current pattern of escalating federal deployments could be laying the groundwork for its use. Ed Anderson, a U.S. veteran and organizer with Common Defense, has previously warned that such moves could be designed to justify invoking the Act.
“I truly think that Trump and his allies are looking to create a false flag that would allow him to put the Insurrection Act in place and become the tyrant that he wants to be,” he said.
The impact of the violence and protests is already rippling through daily life in Minnesota. St. Paul Public Schools announced plans to offer online learning options for students who do not feel safe attending in person, while Minneapolis Public Schools and the University of Minnesota have also introduced temporary remote and flexible learning options.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of U.S. citizens who say they were questioned or detained without cause, alleging racial profiling and warrantless arrests by federal agents.
As demonstrations continue across Minneapolis, city leaders warn the situation is becoming increasingly untenable. Mayor Jacob Frey said the city is being placed in an “impossible situation,” trying to maintain public safety while aggressive federal enforcement actions proceed without local coordination.
With Trump again threatening the Insurrection Act, Minneapolis now sits at the center of a national confrontation over immigration enforcement, federal power, and the limits of presidential authority—one that could test constitutional norms not seriously challenged in decades.
