‘No reason right now’: Trump cools Insurrection Act talk over Minnesota protests

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Protesters face off against an ICE supporter during a demonstration outside the Bishop Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 15, 2026. — AFP pic

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 — US President Donald Trump said Friday there was no immediate need to invoke the Insurrection Act over protests against immigration raids in Minnesota, a day after threatening to use the law.

But in a move that would inflame the standoff between the White House and Minnesota, CBS News reported that the Justice Department was investigating Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey for impeding federal officers.

They have both called for peaceful protests against immigration sweeps in their state. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

Amid the escalating row between Trump and Minnesota leaders this week, the president threatened the drastic measure that would have allowed him to deploy the military to police the protests.

“If I needed it, I would use it. I don’t think there is any reason right now to use it,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the law that grants the deployment of soldiers on US soil.

The Insurrection Act allows a president to sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act to suppress “armed rebellion” or “domestic violence” and use the armed forces “as he considers necessary” to enforce the 19th-century law.

Crowds of protesters have clashed with immigration officers across the city of Minneapolis, opposing their efforts to target undocumented migrants with some officers responding with violence.

Demonstrations dramatically expanded following the killing of Renee Nicole Good, 37, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis on January 7 as the Trump administration pressed operations to catch undocumented migrants.

‘Incitement of violence’ 

Federal agents fired their weapons in two separate incidents, wounding a man from Venezuela Wednesday, and in Good’s killing last week.

Federal prosecutors also charged a man with stealing a rifle from an FBI vehicle and he is due in court Friday.

US Attorney Daniel Rosen claimed that local officials were responsible for the “incitement of violence against federal law enforcement... which resulted here in the theft of a firearm from an FBI vehicle.”

A woman was roughly pulled from her car by officers Tuesday, an AFP correspondent saw, amid the escalating deployment of federal officers to the state.

Proponents of immigration enforcement have also begun to face off with those who oppose it in the state, leading to tense encounters.

The Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper reported that divisions within the anti-ICE movement were beginning to emerge over how aggressively to resist the enforcement efforts.

Activists have also become increasingly wary of “far-right provocateurs trying to bait demonstrators into rioting,” the publication reported.

Minnesota’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) chapter has reported an uptick in complaints against ICE officers.

Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accused federal agents of waging “a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota,” in a video posted to X Wednesday night.

On Wednesday, the family of Good announced that they had retained a top law firm to probe the killing ahead of launching possible legal action against the officer and the government.

The lawyers demanded Thursday that federal officials – including the officer who fired the shots that killed Good – preserve records and evidence relating to the incident. — AFP