Pentagon prepares 1,500 troops to possibly deploy to Minnesota: report
Jan 18 (Reuters) – The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty troops to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the site of large protests against the government’s deportation campaign, U.S. media reported on Sunday.
The military ordered units to prepare to deploy in case violence in the northern state escalates, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed defense officials, adding that it is unclear whether any of them will be sent.
The White House told the Post in a statement that it is typical for the Pentagon “to be prepared for any decision the president may or may not make.” The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces if state officials do not stop protesters from attacking immigration officials after a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
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TROOPER THREAT CONTINUES INCREASE FROM IMMIGRATION AGENTS
“If corrupt Minnesota politicians do not obey the law and prevent professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking ICE Patriots who are just trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
The soldiers subject to deployment specialize in cold-weather operations and are assigned to two U.S. Army infantry battalions under the 11th Airborne Division, based in Alaska, the Post and ABC News reported.
Clashes between residents and federal agents have become increasingly tense in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s most populous city, after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, on Jan. 7 as she drove away after being ordered out of her car.
Trump, a Republican, has sent nearly 3,000 federal ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul since early last week as part of a wave of interventions, mostly in cities governed by Democratic politicians.
He has said troop deployments to Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Memphis and Portland, Oregon, are necessary to combat crime and protect federal property and personnel from protesters. But this month he said he would withdraw the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, which have faced setbacks and legal challenges.
Local leaders have accused the president of federal overreach and exaggerating isolated episodes of violence to justify sending troops.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, against whom the Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation, mobilized the state’s National Guard to support local law enforcement and emergency management agencies, the state Department of Public Safety published in X on Saturday.
Trump has repeatedly invoked a scandal surrounding the theft of federal funds intended for social welfare programs in Minnesota as justification for sending immigration agents. The president and administration officials have repeatedly singled out the state’s Somali immigrant community.
The Insurrection Act is a federal law that gives the president the power to deploy the military or federalize National Guard troops within the United States to quell domestic uprisings.
The law can be invoked when there are “obstructions, combinations or unlawful meetings or rebellions” against federal authority. If the president believes those conditions have been met, he can use the military to take action “to enforce those laws or suppress rebellion.”
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and William Mallard)