Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to try to quell the uprisings in Minnesota.
A week ago, Renee Macklin Good, a 37-year-old wife and mother was shot and killed by an ICE agent as she attempted to navigate a residential street where ICE vehicles were stuck in snow and ice. After a few short words, she tried to drive off around the agent, but he fired his weapon three times and fatally shot her in the face.
That incident alone sparked protests nationwide against, as many Americans, particularly those in Minnesota, have grown weary of ICE presence and a seemingly unfettered ability to approach and detain local residents.
On Wednesday, anger increased after reports that an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot a Venezuelan immigrant during an arrest.
“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.
In response to Trump’s comments, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said that the administration caused the protests by sending the agents to Minnesota in the first place and that there are no grounds to invoke the Insurrection Act.
“If Donald Trump does invoke the Insurrection Act, I’m prepared to challenge that action in court,” Ellison said in an emailed statement to NPR.
The Insurrection Act was signed into law in 1807 to give the president a way to send troops to the states to restore law and order, while also allowing armed forces to act as law enforcement by doing things such as arrests and searches.
Although Trump claimed that half of all presidents have invoked the act, the truth is that only 17 presidents have utilized the law. In 1992, former President George H.W. Bush used the law to deal with protests over the Rodney King beating.
Even in that instance, when Los Angeles police asked Marines to “cover” them, the Marines mistook them to mean “open fire” illustrating one of the risks of invoking the Insurrection Act.
Trump appears to see invocation of the act as a blank check that would be unopposable even in the courts.
“Do you know that I could use that immediately and no judge can even challenge you on that. But I haven’t chosen to do it because I haven’t felt we need it,” he said during the October 60 Minutes interview.
But according to legal experts like Laura Dickinson, professor at George Washington University Law School, it’s not as cut-and-dry as Trump seems to believe it is.
“ While it seems very broad on its face, it’s not a blank check,” she said.
