Trump threatens to invoke Insurrection Act of 1807

Since the surge began, agents have arrested immigrants and protesters alike, occasionally broken windows and pulled people from their cars, and have been shouted at for stopping black and Latino citizens to demand identification.

The Department of Homeland Security identified the man the officer shot as Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.

He was allowed to enter the United States by the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, in 2022 through the government’s humanitarian parole program. The Trump administration has since revoked parole granted to Venezuelans and others granted under Biden.

In a statement, DHS described him as a convicted felon under Minnesota law after he was caught driving without a license and giving a false name to a police officer. Court records in the cases reviewed by Reuters show that he was convicted only of “minor misdemeanors” that Minnesota state law says “do not constitute crimes” and that the maximum penalty is a $US300 ($448) fine.

According to DHS’s account, federal officers attempted to stop Sosa-Celis at his vehicle. DHS said the man fled the scene in his vehicle, crashed into a parked vehicle, and then fled on foot.

An officer tackled him, and while the two were “fighting on the ground,” two other Venezuelan men emerged from a nearby apartment and “attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and a broom handle,” the statement said.

The DHS statement said Sosa-Celis broke free and began hitting the officer “with a shovel or broomstick,” whereupon the officer “opened defensive fire to defend his life.”

Reuters was unable to verify the account provided by DHS.

DHS said the men fled into the apartment and after officers entered, all three were arrested. Sosa-Celis and the police officer were hospitalized for their injuries, according to department and city officials.

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The Trump administration and Minnesota leaders have accused each other of inciting anger and violence.

At a late-night news conference, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the ICE surge an invasion and said he saw “abhorrent and unacceptable behavior by ICE.”

Frey called for peace, saying, “We cannot be in a place right now in America where we literally have two government entities at war with each other.”

The Sedition Act of 1807 is a law that allows the president to commission or federalize soldiers from a state’s National Guard to suppress rebellion; this is an exception to laws prohibiting the use of soldiers in civil or criminal law enforcement.

It has been used 30 times in U.S. history, according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. The Supreme Court ruled that only the president can decide whether the conditions of the law have been met.

Trump last year took the unusual step of federalizing National Guard soldiers to help enforce immigration laws in Democratic-run cities over the objections of state governors, including Los Angeles, which a judge ruled was unconstitutional in December.

Trump’s aggressive moves in Minnesota have divided his supporters: 59 percent of Republicans support a policy that prioritizes arrests by immigration officers even if people are injured, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday, while 39 percent said officers should focus on not hurting people, even if it means fewer arrests.

If Trump sends troops to Minnesota, he will almost certainly face legal challenges from the state. The Minnesota attorney general’s office sued the Trump administration this week, saying ICE agents engaged in a “pattern of illegal, violent behavior,” including racial profiling and breaking into residents’ homes without permission.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a similar lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday.

Reuters

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