Pentagon readies 1,500 soldiers to possibly deploy to Minnesota amid anti-ICE protests: Report
The US army has reportedly placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the state escalates, the Post quoted unnamed defense officials as saying.
The Pentagon ordered about 1,500 active-duty US soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. Minnesota is currently witnessing widespread protests against the Trump administration's deportation drive.
The army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the state escalates, the Post quoted unnamed defense officials as saying. They added that it is not clear whether any of them will be sent.
The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters 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 wasn’t immediately clear what the FBI would ask agents who volunteered to travel to Minneapolis to do. FBI agents have traditionally focused on national security-related tasks such as counter-terrorism, organised crime and high-profile violent crimes.
The development comes as the city has become a focal point of anti-ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] protests since an officer shot and killed a woman, Renee Good, on Jan. 7 while she was in her car.
Insurrection Act
President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces if officials in the state do not stop protesters from targeting immigration officials after a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
"If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
The soldiers subject to deployment are assigned to two US 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 federalise National Guard troops inside the U.S. to quell domestic uprisings.
The law can be invoked when there are "unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages or rebellion" against federal authority. If the president deems those conditions have been met, he may use the armed forces to take actions "to enforce those laws or suppress the rebellion."
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have already been increasing their presence in Minneapolis, Bloomberg reported.
FBI Director Kash Patel and US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Friday visited Minneapolis, according to a post shared on Patel’s X account.
Patel said in the post that the FBI was “cracking down on violent rioters and investigating the funding networks supporting the criminal actors with multiple arrests already.”
The FBI declined to comment.
(With inputs from Reuters)