Trump threatens to invoke Insurrection Act over Minnesota protests

US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke an emergency law that allows domestic deployment of the military, as protests roiled Minnesota after two incidents of federal agents firing their weapons, injuring a man Wednesday and killing a woman last week.

Protesters denounced the violence of Trump's broad-reaching immigration raids in rallies in the frigid northern city, which is a Democratic stronghold.

On his social media platform Trump repeated his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act, a 19th-century law for quelling insurrection that has not been used in more than 30 years.

"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," Trump posted on social media Thursday.

Trump has reacted angrily to protests and court decisions blocking his drive to deploy the National Guard as he presses an anti-immigration agenda that has drawn accusations of authoritarian overreach and periodic mass rallies with the mantra "No Kings."

Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accused federal agents of waging "a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota," in a video posted to X Wednesday night, noting a broad array of violent incidents, including "breaking windows, dragging pregnant women down the street," and the January 7 killing of 37-year-old Renee Good.

"We must protest loudly, urgently, but also peacefully," Walz said, calling on Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to "end this occupation, you've done enough."

Walz called on Minnesotans to record every interaction with ICE for future prosecution. 

When Noem addressed reporters outside the White House Thursday, she declined to say if she thinks Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act, and didn't know if he would.

"It's his constitutional right, and it's up to him if he wants to utilize it to do it," Noem said. 

Residents of Minneapolis were on edge Thursday after an immigration agent shot and injured a man Wednesday evening, marking the second time in a week an ICE agent had opened fire on someone in Minneapolis.

- Shots fired -

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the shooting late Wednesday resulted from a struggle between an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent and a man he was trying to apprehend.

"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 residence 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.  

"No matter what led up to this incident, the situation we're seeing in our city is not sustainable," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in an X post.

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.

Senior White House official Stephen Miller on Thursday accused Minnesota officials of "deliberately, willfully and purposefully" inciting a "violent insurrection."

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt also lashed out at journalists, saying "media is absolutely complicit in this violence."

But concerns about the tactics used by ICE are not limited to incidents of violent street enforcement. 

In 2025, ICE broke its record for people dying in detention with 30 deaths, according to data released by the agency.

On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that the death of 55-year-old Cuban immigrant Lunas Campos in detention, will likely be declared a homicide, with "the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression."

The deaths and the incidence of violence have raised questions about inadequate training and oversight of ICE agents.