US President Donald Trump has threatened to use the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy military forces, in Minnesota amid escalating tension over a deployment of federal agents in the state's most populous city, which has become the focus of daily clashes.
"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 wrote in a Truth Social post.
The US Department of Homeland Security, which is overseeing Trump's immigration crackdown, said that during Wednesday's incident two people attacked the federal officer with a broomstick and snow shovel as he wrestled with the Venezuelan, who the DHS said was in the United States illegally.
The Insurrection Act is a law authorising the president to deploy military forces on US soil.
Presidents have invoked the Insurrection Act more than two dozen times, most recently in 1992 by President George HW Bush to end unrest in Los Angeles.
with AP
