- Trump makes threats after ICE officer shoots Venezuelan man.
- He says he could deploy a military force to Minnesota.
- Minnesota leaders say ICE’s actions are ‘disgusting and intolerable.’
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces in Minnesota after days of angry protests over the surge of immigration agents on the streets of Minneapolis.
Clashes between residents and federal agents have become increasingly tense after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a U.S. citizen, Renee Good, in a car eight days ago in Minneapolis, and protests have spread to other cities. Trump’s latest threat came hours after an immigration agent shot a Venezuelan man who the government said was fleeing after agents tried to stop his vehicle in Minneapolis. The man was injured in the leg.
“If Minnesota’s corrupt politicians do not obey the law and stop professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking ICE Patriots, who are only trying to do their jobs, I will enact the INSURRECTION ACT,” Trump wrote on social media.
Trump, a Republican, for weeks ridiculed the state’s Democratic leaders and called people of Somali descent “trash” who should be “kicked out” of the country.
He has already sent nearly 3,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis area, who have carried guns through the city’s icy streets, wearing military-style camouflage and masks hiding their faces.
They were met day and night with loud and often angry protests from residents, some whistling or banging tambourines. On Wednesday evening, crowds of nearby residents gathered near the area where the Venezuelan man was shot. Some shouted in protest and federal agents lit flash grenades and released clouds of tear gas.
Later, after most residents had dispersed, a small group vandalized a car they thought belonged to federal agents, with one person smearing it with red graffiti saying, “Hang Kristi Noem,” referring to the Homeland Security secretary who oversees ICE.
Since that surge began, officers have arrested both immigrants and protesters, sometimes breaking windows and pulling people from their cars, and have been criticized for stopping Black and Latino U.S. citizens to demand identification.
“Disgusting and intolerable”
The US Department of Homeland Security, which is overseeing Trump’s immigration crackdown, identified the man shot by its officer as Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. He had been allowed to enter the United States by the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, in 2022 under the government’s humanitarian parole program. The Trump administration has since revoked parole granted to Venezuelans and others admitted under Biden.
In its statement, DHS called him a convicted felon under Minnesota law after he was caught driving without a license and giving a police officer a false name. Court records from those cases reviewed by Reuters show he was convicted only of “minor misdemeanors,” which Minnesota state law says “do not constitute a felony,” and for which the maximum penalty is a $300 fine.
According to the DHS account, federal agents attempted to stop Sosa-Celis in his vehicle. He fled the scene in his vehicle, crashed into a parked car, then fled on foot, DHS said.
A police officer caught up with him and while the two men were “fighting on the ground,” two other Venezuelan men came out of a nearby apartment and “attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and a broomstick,” the statement said.
Sosa-Celis broke away and began hitting the officer with “a shovel or broom handle,” and the officer therefore “fired defensive shots in defense of his life,” the DHS statement said.
Reuters was unable to verify the account provided by DHS. The men fled into the apartment and all three were arrested after officers entered, DHS said. Sosa-Celis and the officer were recovering from their injuries in the hospital, according to department and city officials.
The Trump administration and Minnesota leaders have blamed each other for stoking anger and violence.
At a late-night press conference, Mayor Jacob Frey called ICE’s rise an invasion and said he had seen “behavior from ICE that is disgusting and intolerable.”
“We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two government entities literally fighting each other,” Frey said, calling for peace.
Trump supporters divided on immigration enforcement
The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a law authorizing the president to deploy military personnel or federalize soldiers into a state’s National Guard to suppress rebellion, an exception to laws that prohibit the use of soldiers in enforcing civil or criminal laws.
It has been used 30 times in U.S. history, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. The Supreme Court has ruled that the president alone can determine whether the conditions of the law are met.
Trump has already taken the unusual step of federalizing National Guard troops to help enforce immigration laws in Democratic-run cities, over the objections of state governors, including in Los Angeles last year, which a judge ruled unconstitutional in December.
Trump’s aggressive moves in Minnesota have divided his supporters: 59% of Republicans favor a policy that prioritizes arrests by immigration agents even if people are injured, while 39% say agents should strive not to harm people even if it means fewer arrests, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey released Thursday.
If Trump sends troops to Minnesota, he will almost certainly face legal challenges from the state. The Minnesota attorney general’s office already sued the Trump administration this week, claiming ICE agents engaged in a “pattern of illegal and violent conduct,” including racial profiling and forced entry into residents’ homes without a warrant. The American Civil Liberties Union also filed a similar lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday.
In a brief hearing Wednesday, Minnesota asked U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez to issue a temporary order limiting ICE’s surge.
Menendez ordered the Trump administration to respond by Monday, saying it would rule then, calling the issues raised by the Minnesota lawsuit “extremely important.”
