<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to quell unrest over federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
He threatened to send in troops following a night of protests and vandalism in the Minnesota city after an agent shot a man in the leg.<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said an officer opened fire after he was attacked by three Venezuelan nationals with a shovel and broom handle.<\/p>\n
Tensions have been running high in Minneapolis since an immigration agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, 37, last week, sparking nationwide protests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Insurrection Act is a 19th Century law that allows active-duty military personnel to be deployed for law enforcement duties inside the US.<\/p>\n
Trump has previously said he might invoke the 1807 law elsewhere without ever doing so.<\/p>\n
The president posted on Truth Social that he would use the law if Minnesota officials failed to stop the “professional agitators and insurrectionists”.<\/p>\n
DHS said Wednesday’s shooting occurred after a car chase involving a Venezuelan national, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who was previously convicted for driving without a licence.<\/p>\n
The agency statement said after the pursuit, Sosa-Celis got out of his vehicle and fought with the federal agent.<\/p>\n
Two more illegal immigrants from Venezuela, Alfredo Alejandro Ajorna and Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezma, came out of a nearby apartment, according to the agency.<\/p>\n
All three attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle, DHS said, before the agent opened fire, hitting Sosa-Celis in the leg. <\/p>\n
The agent was taken to hospital. Sosa-Celis was also taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. All three Venezuelans were arrested.<\/p>\n
“What we saw last night in Minneapolis was an attempted murder of federal law enforcement,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.<\/p>\n
She said the officer was “ambushed and attacked” by the men and fired a defensive shot.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday night, clashes broke out between protesters and law enforcement in the Hawthorne area of Minneapolis, near the scene of the shooting.<\/p>\n
City police chief Brian O’Hara said his officers were hit by fireworks, ice and snowballs.<\/p>\n
Several vehicles belonging to the federal government were damaged in the disorder, and property was stolen from inside the vehicles, according to the FBI.<\/p>\n
The FBI said on Thursday that it was offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the “recovery of stolen government property and\/or the arrest of individuals responsible for the destruction and theft of government property”.<\/p>\n
Around 3,000 federal officers have been deployed to Minnesota in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who has demanded ICE leave the city, said on X on Wednesday: “No matter what led up to this incident, the situation we are seeing in our city is not sustainable.”<\/p>\n
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, made a direct appeal to the president on Thursday posting on X: “Let’s turn the temperature down.”<\/p>\n
Walz, who has previously called ICE a “modern-day Gestapo”, told Minnesotans: “We cannot fan the flames of chaos.”<\/p>\n
The Democratic governor, who ran for US vice-president alongside Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, said earlier this month he would end his bid for re-election.<\/p>\n
The move came in the wake of a fraud scandal involving the state’s welfare programmes.<\/p>\n
Trump has said Operation Metro Surge will continue in Minnesota after a federal judge on Wednesday denied Minnesota prosecutors a temporary restraining order against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tensions over immigration enforcement have been running high in the city since the fatal shooting on 7 January of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration says the ICE agent acted in self-defence, while local officials argue the woman posed no danger.<\/p>\n
Videos of the incident show ICE agents approaching a car, which is in the middle of the street.<\/p>\n
As Good attempts to drive off, one of them at the front of the vehicle points his gun at the driver and fires three shots. The FBI is investigating the incident.<\/p>\n
An online fundraiser set up for Good’s widow and family has raised more than $1.4m. Another online fundraiser for Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent at the centre of the deadly confrontation, has raised $740,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Trump #threatens #invoke #Insurrection #Act #quell #antiICE #protests #Minnesota<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US President Donald Trump has … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}