Trump considering sending up to 1,500 troops to Minnesota amid anti-ICE protests: reports

The U.S. Department of Defense is preparing to possibly deploy about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to Minnesota as protests against federal immigration enforcement efforts continue. 

The soldiers, drawn from two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division based in Alaska, have been issued “prepare-to-deploy” orders, defense officials told media outlets on Sunday. 

The move is a precautionary step in the event that violence escalates, but a final decision to send the troops has not been made.

The preparations come as demonstrations and clashes have continued for more than a week in Minneapolis after an officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good during a law enforcement operation on January 7.

President Donald Trump has warned that he is considering invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allows the president to deploy active-duty military within the United States to suppress civil disorder. He later said he does not think invoking the act is necessary at this time.