One of the men Donald Trump pardoned for taking part in the January 6 insurrection sparked fury from protesters after holding a rally in support of ICE officers.
Jake Lang gathered a small group of supporters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, playing the song ‘Ice Ice Baby’ and talking about how immigrants were ‘replacing’ white people.
He advertised the rally as a ‘Crusader March’ on ‘Little Somalia’, which was labelled as racist and Islamophobic. He also vowed to burn a copy of the Quran.
Lang posted on social media before the rally: ‘America is a CHRISTIAN COUNTRY; we will not allow Somali Daycare Pirates to overtake Minneapolis.’
The scene quickly descended into chaos, as protesters marching against immigration raids in Minneapolis clashed with Lang’s group.
Emotions are running high in Minnesota after an ICE agent fatally shot US citizen Renee Good as she was sitting in her car earlier this month.
Lang and his group had water balloons and snowballs thrown at them by anti-immigration protesters, and quickly left the scene.
He posted on social media afterwards, claiming he had been ‘stabbed by a crazy white commie leftist rioter’. It’s unclear if his claims are true.
These protests have become common on the streets of Minneapolis since a federal agent shot Good on January 7.
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’ and has urged ICE to leave.
On Friday, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy troops as protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations continue in Minneapolis.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to deploy the US military or federalise the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors.
‘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.
Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison responded by saying he would challenge any deployment in court.
He is already suing to try to stop the surge by the Department of Homeland Security, which says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December.
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