The Pentagon ordered 1,500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for potential deployment to Minnesota as protests continue over the federal government’s immigration operation, multiple media outlets are reporting.
Two Department of Defense officials told ABC News the soldiers are from the 11th Airborne Division, based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
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“We are taking prudent steps to prepare active-duty Army forces,” one official said. “This doesn’t mean they will deploy; we are preparing options.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, The White House said it’s typical for the Pentagon “to be prepared for any decision the President may or may not make.”
During an interview with CNN‘s Jake Tapper, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said this action by the Pentagon “was clearly designed to intimidate the people of Minneapolis.”
“Here’s the thing — we’re not going to be intimidated. If the goal here is safety, we’ve got many mechanisms to achieve safety,” Frey said. “And, the best way to get safety is not to have an influx of even more agents, and in this case, military, in Minneapolis.”
Trump and the Insurrection Act
President Donald Trump, on Thursday, threatened that he might invoke the Insurrection Act amid demonstrations that broke out after Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers fatally shot a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman, Renee Good, and shot and injured another person, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, in the same city just one week later.
“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, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Speaking to reporters the next day, though, Trump said he doesn’t see “any reason right now” to use the Insurrection Act, “but if I needed it I’d use it.”
“It’s very powerful,” he added.
On Saturday, CBS News wrote that The Department of Justice is investigating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Frey, as well as other officials in the state, over allegations they conspired to slow federal immigration agents. Walz and Frey called the DOJ’s investigation an attempt to weaponize the federal government and intimidate them.
State officials, such as Walz, implored protestors to keep demonstrations peaceful as the federal presence continues in Minnesota. Walz directed Minnesota’s National Guard to be on standby to assist local law enforcement in “keeping the peace,” though they have not been deployed.
The state of Minnesota, as well as the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month against the Department of Homeland Security to end what officials called the “unprecedented surge” of almost 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents in their areas.
“The unlawful deployment of thousands of armed, masked, and poorly trained federal agents is hurting Minnesota,” Attorney General Andrew Ellison said in a statement. “People are being racially profiled, harassed, terrorized and assaulted. Schools have gone into lockdown. Businesses have been forced to close. Minnesota police are spending countless hours dealing with the chaos ICE is causing. This federal invasion of the Twin Cities has to stop, so today I am suing DHS to bring it to an end.”
