Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday said there are “no plans” to pull Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from Minnesota following days of protest and unrest in its capital city.
When asked by a reporter about whether she is going to pull agents out of Minneapolis, the secretary said at the White House that there are “no plans to pull out of Minnesota” and signaled that President Donald Trump has the authority to use the Insurrection Act to quell any unrest there.
“He certainly has the constitutional authority to utilize that. My hope is that this leadership team in Minnesota will start to work with us to get criminals off the streets,” she said, referring to a post Trump made on Truth Social stating that he could invoke the law.
Noem also responded to a question from a reporter about why some U.S. citizens have been asked to provide proof of citizenship in Minnesota.
Noem said that during ICE operations in Minnesota, “in every situation we are doing targeted enforcement,” and “if we are on a target, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they’re there and having them validate their identity.”
Trump receives information from officials on the ground in Minnesota and “makes fully informed decisions and utilizes his authorities,” Noem added.
Presidents have invoked the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law, more than two dozen times in U.S. history, most recently in 1992 when President George H.W. Bush invoked the law to end riots in Los Angeles. In that instance, local authorities had asked for the assistance.
Minnesota Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison responded that he would challenge any such action in court. Ellison is currently suing in an attempt to stop the surge of ICE operations in his state by the Department of Homeland Security, which says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in Minnesota since early December.
“I’m making a direct appeal to the President: Let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are,” Gov. Tim Walz, also a Democrat, wrote on X.
Trump made the warning after days of protests and attacks on ICE agents in the wake of the shooting death of a protester, Renee Good, by an agent earlier in January. Video footage of the incident showed Good driving her vehicle toward an ICE agent, who responded by shooting and killing her.
The Trump administration has said the agent, who was struck by the vehicle and hospitalized after the incident with internal bleeding, according to a DHS statement, was justified in the shooting. Walz and other Minnesota officials have blamed the administration and ICE for Good’s death.
