The Pentagon has ordered roughly 1,500 active-duty U.S. troops to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the Washington Post reported Sunday. Minnesota is currently witnessing widespread protests against the Trump administration’s deportation proceedings.
The army has ordered troops to prepare for deployment in case violence escalates in the state, the paper quoted an unnamed defense official as saying. They added that it was unclear whether any of them would be shipped.
The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Meanwhile, sources told Bloomberg that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is asking agents across the US to travel to Minneapolis for temporary duty.
It was not immediately clear what the FBI would ask the agents who volunteered in Minneapolis to do. FBI agents have traditionally focused on tasks related to national security, such as counter-terrorism, organized crime, and high-profile violent crimes.
The development comes as the city has become the focus of protests against ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) after an officer shot and killed a woman, Renee Good, while she was in her car on January 7.
the Sedition Act
President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military force if state officials do not stop protesters from targeting immigration officials following a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“If the corrupt politicians in Minnesota don’t follow the law and stop the professional agitators and rioters from attacking the Patriots of ICE who are just trying to do their jobs, I will implement a SERIOUS LAW,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Thursday.
The soldiers subject to the deployment are assigned to two U.S. Army infantry battalions under the 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska, the Post reported.
The Insurrection Act is a federal law that gives the president the power to deploy the military or federalize National Guard units within the US to quell domestic insurgencies.
The law can be invoked in cases of “unlawful obstruction, combination, or assembly or riot” against federal authority. If the president determines that these conditions have been met, he can use the armed forces to take action “to enforce these laws or suppress insurrection.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security have already increased their presence in Minneapolis, Bloomberg reported.
FBI Director Kash Patel and US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche visited Minneapolis on Friday, according to a post shared on Patel’s X account.
Patel said in the post that the FBI “is cracking down on violent rioters and investigating financial networks supporting criminals who have already been arrested multiple times.”
The FBI declined to comment.
(With inputs from Reuters)