Pentagon readies 1,500 soldiers to possibly deploy to Minnesota amid anti-ICE protests: Report

The Pentagon ordered about 1,500 active-duty US soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. Minnesota is currently witnessing widespread protests against the Trump administration's deportation drive.

The army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the state escalates, the Post quoted unnamed defense officials as saying. They added that it is not clear whether any of them will be sent.

The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment.

Meanwhile, sources told Bloomberg that the FBI is asking agents across the US to travel to Minneapolis for temporary duty. The development comes as the city has become a focal point of anti-ICE protests since an officer shot and killed a woman, Renee Good, on Jan. 7 while she was in her car.

"If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.

The soldiers subject to deployment are assigned to two US Army infantry battalions under the 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska, the Post reported.

The Insurrection Act is a federal law that gives the president the power to deploy the military or federalize National Guard troops inside the U.S. to quell domestic uprisings.

The law can be invoked when there are "unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages or rebellion" against federal authority. If the president deems those conditions have been met, he may use the armed forces to take actions "to enforce those laws or suppress the rebellion."()