The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty troops to prepare for possible deployment to Minnesota, where federal authorities have been conducting a massive immigration enforcement operation, two defense officials said Sunday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division have been ordered to prepare for deployment. The unit is located in Alaska and specializes in operations in arctic conditions.
A defense official says troops are ready to deploy to Minnesota if President Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act. This is a rarely used 19th century law that allows him to hire active duty troops as law enforcement officers.
Just days ago, Trump threatened to do so to quell protests over his administration’s crackdown on immigration.
In an emailed statement, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell did not deny that the order had been issued and said the military “stands ready to carry out the orders of the commander in chief if needed.”
ABC News first reported the development.
Trump said in a social media post on Thursday that he would invoke the 1807 law “if Minnesota’s corrupt politicians don’t follow the law and stop professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking ICE patriots who are just trying to do their job.”
A day later, he appeared to walk back that threat, telling reporters at the White House that there was no reason to use it “right now.”
“If I need it, I’ll use it,” Trump said. “It’s very powerful.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to Invoking the Insurrection Act During his two terms in office. In 2020, he also threatened to use it to quell protests george floyd Killed by Minneapolis police, he threatened to use it to stage immigration protests in recent months.
President George H.W. Bush most recently invoked the law to end riots in Los Angeles in 1992 after the four white police officers who beat Rodney King were acquitted.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat and a frequent target of Trump, urged the president not to send more troops.
“I’m making a direct appeal to the president: Let’s cool down. Stop this retaliation. This is not who we are,” Walz said on social media last week.