Explainer: What Trump’s Insurrection Act threat means for US protests

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - A community member picks up a container of CS gas near the site where a shooting by federal agents occurred last night on January 15, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. — AFP pic

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 — President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to invoke the “Insurrection Act” to quell protests over federal immigration raids in the northern US state of Minnesota.

Here is a look at what the act entails and its previous use:

Insurrection Act 

The Insurrection Act allows for domestic deployment of the US military for civilian law enforcement purposes such as conducting searches and making arrests.

Trump has threatened to invoke it in response to protests against his mass deportation drive not only in Minnesota but also in other Democratic-ruled states – California, Illinois and Oregon.

Intermittent and sometimes violent protests have occurred in the states when Trump has launched targeted “surges” of federal agents, including from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“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,” he said in a Truth Social post on Thursday.

A protester holds a sign during a demonstration against ICE outside the Bishop Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 15, 2026. — AFP pic

Posse Comitatus 

Using the US military domestically to conduct law enforcement activities is normally barred by another law, the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.

The Insurrection Act lets a president sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act to suppress “armed rebellion” or “domestic violence” and use the armed forces “as he considers necessary” to enforce the law.

Past use 

The Insurrection Act has been invoked by US presidents about 30 times previously but rarely in recent history, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

It was enacted in 1792 but the current version dates to 1807.

America’s first president, George Washington, used it to put down state rebellions against federal authority and president Abraham Lincoln relied upon it at the start of the 1861-65 Civil War.

The Insurrection Act was most recently invoked by president George H.W. Bush at the request of California’s governor to help put down riots in Los Angeles in 1992 that followed the acquittal of police officers involved in the beating of a Black motorist, Rodney King.

It was used by president Lyndon Johnson in 1968 to quell riots that broke out in the nation’s capital and other cities following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

A demonstrator holds a sign with a photo of Renee Nicole Good, whose death at the hands of a US ICE agent, has reignited protests against Trump across the country. — AFP pic

National Guard deployments 

Trump separately relied on a seldom-used law known as Title 10 to send National Guard troops to Los Angeles last year against the wishes of California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

Title 10 permits National Guard federalization in times of “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion” against government authority, but does not give the troops the powers to perform domestic law enforcement duties.

Trump’s bid to deploy the National Guard to another city, Chicago, suffered a setback last month when the Supreme Court ruled he had “failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.”

The Supreme Court rebuff was a rare defeat for Trump at the top court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority. — AFP