US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke a law that allows domestic deployment of the military, as protests roil Minnesota after a federal agent shot dead a woman last week.
“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…and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump posted on social media.
This rarely used law allows the government to deploy soldiers for law enforcement purposes.
On Wednesday, an immigration agent shot and injured a man in Minneapolis, triggering further protests.
The shooting marked the second time in a week an ICE agent had shot someone in Minneapolis, with the previous shooting resulting in the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on January 7. This sparked ongoing protests and a surge of federal agents into the northern US city.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooting late Wednesday resulted from a struggle in front of a residence between a man and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
“During the struggle, the federal agent discharged his weapon, striking one adult male,” O’Hara told reporters at a press conference.
Amid the tussle, two people emerged from a nearby building and attacked the federal agent with a snow shovel and a broom handle, the Department of Homeland Security said, identifying the wounded man as an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
The man suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his leg and was transported to a hospital for treatment, while the two others were taken into custody, officials said.
The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush at the request of the Republican governor of California, who was facing unprecedented riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers who had beaten Rodney King, a Black motorist, the previous year.
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