Pete Hegseth, head of the Pentagon, during a visit to American troops. PHOTO: USA Today / ddp USA / Profimedia Images
The Pentagon has sent orders for 1,500 active-duty US soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the site of major protests against the campaign to deport migrants, The Washington Post and Reuters write on Sunday.
The army has placed the units on standby for deployment if violence in the state escalates, the newspaper said, citing defense sources, adding that it was unclear if any of these units would be sent.
The soldiers to be mobilized are part of two US Army infantry battalions from the 11th Airborne Division, based in Alaska, according to The Washington Post.
President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to use the Insurrection Act to deploy the military amid protests that have erupted after a new violent incident left a man and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer injured. The US president branded the protesters as “professional agitators and insurgents” who “attacked the patriots at ICE”.
Tensions are high in Minneapolis, Minnesota's most populous city, after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good on January 7.
Renee Good, the woman killed in Minneapolis by an ICE agent, was shot four times
The Insurrection Act is a federal law that gives the president the power to deploy the military or federalize National Guard troops within the US to quell domestic uprisings.
The law can be invoked when there is “obstruction, unlawful association or assembly, or rebellion” against federal authority. If the president deems these conditions to be met, he can use the armed forces to take action “for the enforcement of said laws or the suppression of rebellion.”
