Minneapolis police officers in tactical gear stand on the street in downtown Minneapolis as protesters gather. Photo / Jim Vondruska, AFP
The Pentagon has ordered about 1500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, defence officials told The Washington Post, after President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to unrest there.
The soldiers are assigned to two infantry battalions with the Army’s 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska and specialises in cold-weather operations.
The Army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in Minnesota escalates, officials said, characterising the move as “prudent planning”. It is not clear whether any of them will be sent to the state, the officials said, speaking like some others on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military planning.
The White House said that it’s typical for the Pentagon “to be prepared for any decision the President may or may not make”.
Sean Parnell, a spokesman for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, said that the Pentagon is “always prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief if called upon”. Two officials said that the orders are unrelated to Trump’s recent rhetoric about the United States needing to take control of Greenland.
The development was reported earlier by ABC News.
On Sunday, (local time) Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the federal Government’s surge of immigration enforcement officials, and the possible deployment of active-duty soldiers, an attempt to “bait” protesters in the city.
“We’re not going to give them an excuse to do the thing that clearly they’re trying to set up to do right now, which is these 1500 troops,” Frey told CNN. “I never thought in a million years that we would be invaded by our own federal government.”
The Insurrection Act, a federal law dating to 1807, permits the President to take control of a state’s National Guard forces or deploy active-duty troops domestically in response to a “rebellion”. Invoking the act would be an extraordinary move and mark the first time a commander in chief has done so since President George H.W. Bush called on the military during the Los Angeles riots of 1992, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people and causing widespread destruction.
Typically, invoking the Insurrection Act is considered a last resort, when law enforcement personnel are unable to keep the peace during times of civil unrest.
Trump threatened on Thursday to invoke the law, saying on social media that unless officials in Minnesota could stop protesters from “attacking” agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he would “institute the INSURRECTION ACT” and “quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State”.
On Friday, Trump seemed to cool his rhetoric, saying there wasn’t a reason to invoke the law “right now”. He added, “If I needed it, I’d use it.”
The Trump administration has turned up the pressure on Governor Tim Walz and other Democratic leaders in Minnesota, with the Justice Department launching an investigation into whether Walz and Frey have impeded immigration enforcement. Walz, Frey and other Democrats have said the move is an act of authoritarianism intended to silence critics of the administration’s actions.
On Sunday, Frey said his office had not yet received a subpoena in the investigation, calling the probe “deeply concerning”.
“This whole investigation would ultimately be the product of one of the most basic, foundational responsibilities that I have as mayor, which is to speak on behalf of my constituents,” he told ABC News.
Walz and Frey have pleaded for protesters to remain peaceful. On Saturday, Walz also mobilised the Minnesota National Guard to support local authorities, but he has not deployed those troops.
Minnesota has been a preoccupation of the Trump administration since at least December, when the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Metro Surge, a multi-week immigration crackdown that has led to the arrest of hundreds of people and has been marked by clashes between federal agents and protesters.
ICE agents have shot two people there this month, killing Renée Good, an American citizen, and wounding a Venezuelan migrant, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, after they attempted to detain him.
Minnesota officials have sued the Trump administration over the operation, alleging the surge in law enforcement there is a politically motivated violation of the Constitution. Minnesota Attorney-General Keith Ellison (D) said he is seeking a restraining order and called the operation a “federal invasion”.
Other domestic military deployments ordered by Trump have been legally contested, with mixed results. In the most significant of those actions, Trump seized control of the California National Guard in June over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democratic political rival. About 4000 Guard members were deployed to Los Angeles with a battalion of about 700 active-duty infantry Marines after protests against ICE turned violent in a few instances.
In December, Trump said he would end his efforts to keep National Guard troops deployed in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon, following a 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court that found the administration failed to identify a legal way in which the military could “execute the laws in Illinois”. At issue in those jurisdictions was whether the deployments violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits US troops from carrying out civilian law enforcement actions.
Trump also has deployed more than 2600 members of the National Guard to DC, and administration officials recently extended that mission through the end of 2026. While that deployment remains legally contested, the President has more authority to deploy National Guard members there because it is a federal jurisdiction.
Jacob Bogage contributed to this report.
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