A US defense official told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that soldiers were on standby for possible deployment to Minneapolis.
The official said Saturday that President Donald Trump could select any of the 1,500 troops currently in Alaska if he decides to deploy active-duty troops as anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests continued in Alaska.
A decision has not yet been made on whether to send soldiers from Alaska, officials said.
Minnesota officials urged people to remain orderly and peaceful during protests after ICE agents shot U.S. citizen Rene Good earlier this month.
The official added that the soldiers were part of the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wainwright.
In a Sunday interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey criticized President Trump’s threat to send more troops to the city, saying existing federal ICE agents are already “an occupying force that has literally invaded our city.”
“You can use whatever rhetoric you want, but when there’s a presumed threat that 3,000 ICE agents and border control officers are coming to the city and 1,500 troops are coming to the city, that’s what it feels like,” Frey said.
Last week, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, a little-used law that allows active-duty military personnel to be deployed for law enforcement missions within the United States.
This comes after a US federal judge issued an order limiting the crowd control tactics ICE agents can use against “peaceful and non-disruptive” protesters in Minneapolis.
On Friday, Judge Catherine Menendez ruled that federal agents cannot arrest or pepper-spray peaceful protesters, including those surveilling or observing ICE agents.
But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that the judge’s ruling was “a little ridiculous” because it “didn’t change anything.”
“We only use these chemicals when violence is occurring and continuing. We need to be able to establish law and order to keep people safe,” Noem said. “So the judge’s order doesn’t change anything about how we operate in the field, because it’s basically telling us to do what we were already doing.”
Gov. Tim Walz mobilized the National Guard to be on alert, and other law enforcement officials were deployed to Minneapolis ahead of anti-ICE protests.
The city’s recent protests were sparked by widespread ICE action and followed Good’s death on Jan. 7.
City leaders said Good was there as a legal observer of ICE activities.
But the Trump administration called her a “domestic terrorist.”
Good’s death sparked protests across the country, with many holding signs reading “Justice for Renee.”
