Pentagon Prepares 1,500 Troops for Minnesota Protests

The Pentagon has placed approximately 1,500 active-duty soldiers on prepare-to-deploy orders for a possible mission to Minnesota, where protests against federal immigration enforcement have intensified following the fatal shooting of a local woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this month.

The troops, drawn from two infantry battalions of the Army's 11th Airborne Division based in Alaska, specialize in cold-weather operations and could be sent to the Minneapolis area if unrest escalates, according to U.S. defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. No final decision has been made on deployment, and Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated that the military remains ready to execute any orders from the commander in chief. The preparation follows President Donald Trump's threat last Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act, a 1807 law allowing the president to deploy federal troops domestically to suppress civil disorder.

The protests stem from a surge of nearly 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents sent to Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul since early January, part of a broader federal operation targeting immigration enforcement in cities led by...