Another ICE-involved shooting has put Minneapolis on edge, left a federal officer and a migrant hospitalized, and drawn a new warning from President Trump, who threatened Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops.
The Department of Homeland Security said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was trying to arrest an illegal immigrant from Venezuela on Wednesday evening when the man fled toward a home, resisted arrest and ended up in a scuffle on the ground with the agent.
Two other illegal immigrants rushed from the home and began beating the officer. Faced with a three-on-one attack, the officer fired his gun, wounding one in the leg. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the migrants beat the officer with a snow shovel and broom handle, which she called an “attempted murder.”
The shooting renewed violent demonstrations in Minneapolis, where residents smashed cars, set fires and launched fireworks at local police.
Mr. Trump said that if the state’s Democratic leaders don’t stop the violence, he will seek the more aggressive approach of the Insurrection Act, which would circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act and allow U.S. troops to intervene in law enforcement.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrections from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to their job, I will institute the Insurrection Act, which many presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great state,” the president said on social media.
SEE ALSO: Minnesota conducting its own probe into latest ICE shooting
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, responded by telling Mr. Trump to “stop this campaign of retribution.” He also appealed to his residents to end the violence, saying they were justifying the president’s complaints.
“I know this is scary. We can — we must — speak out loudly, urgently, but also peacefully. We cannot fan the flames of chaos. That’s what he wants,” the governor said.
Mr. Walz toned down his rhetoric from Wednesday, when he delivered an address urging state residents to track and record ICE officers’ “atrocities.”
State Attorney General Keith Ellison, another Democrat, announced a new form to report on federal agents’ activities.
He said he wants to hear stories of business closures, trouble accessing services and constitutional rights violations, including against protesters.
Ms. Noem said Mr. Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who has been particularly vulgar and combative toward ICE, must do more.
SEE ALSO: Dems urge demonstrators to peacefully protest ICE as Trump threatens Insurrection Act over violence
“Mayor Frey and Governor Walz have to get their city under control. They are encouraging impeding and assault against our law enforcement, which is a federal crime, a felony. This is putting the people of Minnesota in harm’s way,” the secretary said in a statement.
Last week, ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good as she was confronting authorities on a Minneapolis street.
The Homeland Security Department released details of the three migrants involved in this week’s altercation.
The original target for arrest was Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan who came to the U.S. in August 2022 under the Biden administration.
The department said he had been convicted of driving without a license and two counts of giving a false name to authorities. Local authorities released him before ICE could issue a deportation “detainer” request. Federal officers were trying to arrest him in the community when he fled.
The two men who “ambushed” the ICE officer, the Homeland Security Department said, were Alfredo Alejandro Ajorna and Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezma. Both of them entered the U.S. in April 2023.
Mr. Ajorna was ordered deported but was defying that order.
Mr. Hernandez-Ledezma was designated a “non-enforcement priority” by the Biden administration, the Homeland Security Department said.
All three migrants are in ICE custody.
Mr. Sosa-Celis and the ICE officer were still hospitalized Thursday, the Homeland Security Department said.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is charged with investigating police use-of-force incidents, said it is investigating the latest shooting.
“This will be an independent BCA investigation,” the bureau said on social media.
Last week, the bureau said it would be part of the investigation into the Good shooting but then announced it was withdrawing after being sidelined by the feds.
Mr. Trump issued his threat to use the Insurrection Act after the Supreme Court rejected his attempt to deploy the National Guard to several cities.
The justices said the president misread the law governing when Guard troops can be deployed without approval of local officials.
The Insurrection Act has been used 30 times, mostly during civil rights clashes of the 1960s and after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Ms. Noem told reporters that Mr. Trump has the authority to use the Insurrection Act but that she hopes local politicians will quell the violence before it becomes necessary.
Mr. Frey, the Minneapolis mayor who has emerged as a vitriolic antagonist to Mr. Trump, dashed those hopes by blasting Mr. Trump’s idea.
“Minnesota needs ICE to leave, not an escalation that brings additional federal troops beyond the 3,000 already here,” he said on social media. “My priority is keeping local law enforcement focused on public safety, not diverted by federal overreach.”
The American Civil Liberties Union said invocation of the Insurrection Act would be “unnecessary, irresponsible and dangerous.”
“President Trump is continuing to stoke fear in a situation his administration created by unleashing lawless, armed federal agents against our communities,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project.
She called on Congress to defund ICE and its sister agency, Customs and Border Protection, “until the administration backs down.”
