Published 01/16/2026 12:24 | Edited 01/16/2026 12:48
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, increased political tension in the country this Thursday (15) by threatening to activate the Insurrection Law, a device that allows the use of the Armed Forces on North American soil.
The threat was made amid escalating protests in Minnesota’s largest city, Minneapolis, against operations by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Protests intensified after the death of Renee Nicole Good, 37, who was shot by an ICE agent during a raid last week. Since then, new episodes of use of force by federal agents have fueled mobilization and tension on the streets of Minneapolis and the country.
In a publication on the Truth Social network, Trump accused state authorities of failing to contain the demonstrations and stated that he may resort to the Insurrection Law if the local government does not act to stop the protests.
The president once again classified protesters as “agitators” and “insurgents”, language that has been used by his administration to frame acts of challenge to xenophobic policies as threats to internal order.
The Insurrection Act, sanctioned in 1807, authorizes the President of the United States to employ the Armed Forces on national territory and to federalize the National Guard in situations considered to be a serious disturbance of order or obstruction to the application of federal laws.
Historically, the device was triggered in specific contexts, such as the imposition of racial desegregation in the southern United States in the 1950s and 1960s and, for the last time, in 1992, when then-president George HW Bush sent troops to Los Angeles at the request of the governor of California following protests sparked by the acquittal of police officers involved in the beating of Rodney King. Use of the law without a governor’s request has not occurred since 1965.
Local officials in Minneapolis have criticized the expanded presence of federal agents in the city.
Mayor Jacob Frey stated that ICE’s actions worsened the climate of insecurity and denounced that the federal force mobilized exceeds the number of municipal police by several times. According to him, the city was placed in an “impossible situation”, with direct confrontation between federal forces and part of the population.
The Department of Homeland Security, led by the White House, reported that more than two thousand arrests related to immigration operations have been made in Minnesota since the beginning of December and stated that the actions will continue.
Democratic parliamentarians and civil rights organizations, in turn, warn that the threat of using military troops against civil protests represents an unprecedented escalation in the conduct of immigration policy and increases the risk of violations of constitutional rights.
Source: vermelho.org.br
