Tensions in the US state of Minnesota have escalated dramatically, with former President Donald Trump threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to ongoing protests against federal immigration enforcement. The situation remains volatile one week after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good.
Trump's Threat and Governor's Plea for Peace
On Thursday, 15 January 2026, Donald Trump issued a stark warning on his Truth Social platform. He stated he would use the Insurrection Act to "quickly put an end to the travesty" in Minnesota if the state's politicians did not stop what he called "professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of ICE."
This threat came as Minnesota's Democratic Governor, Tim Walz, made a public plea for calm. Overnight, he urged protesters in Minneapolis to demonstrate peacefully following reports that a federal officer had shot a man in the leg during an operation in north Minneapolis on Wednesday evening. "I know you're angry. I'm angry," Walz wrote on X. "What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets. But Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace."
Escalating Protests and Federal Account of Shooting
The latest shooting incident, which occurred on 14 January, sparked fresh demonstrations. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the event happened during a "targeted traffic stop" of an undocumented migrant from Venezuela. The DHS alleges the man resisted and attacked an officer, prompting two others from a nearby apartment to join the assault. The officer then "fired a defensive shot to defend his life." This federal account has not been independently verified.
The Minneapolis authorities confirmed the wounded man was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Meanwhile, several hundred protesters gathered at the scene, with Police Chief Brian O'Hara stating some were "engaging in unlawful behaviour" and should disperse.
Walz Condemns "Organised Brutality" as Federal Resignations Mount
In a powerful address on Wednesday, Governor Walz condemned the scale of the federal operation in his state. He claimed between 2,000 and 3,000 armed federal agents had been deployed across Minnesota, conducting door-to-door inquiries and indiscriminate traffic stops. "Just plain grabbing Minnesotans and shoving them into unmarked vans, kidnapping innocent people with no warning and no due process," he alleged.
Walz asserted the operations had long ceased to be about immigration enforcement, calling them a "campaign of organised brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government." He directly called on Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to "end this occupation."
The political fallout is intensifying. Reports indicate that six federal prosecutors from the US attorney's office in Minnesota resigned on Tuesday over the Justice Department's reluctance to investigate the ICE agent involved in Renee Good's fatal shooting. Further resignations from prosecutors in Washington DC have also been reported.
As high school students protested outside the State Capitol in St. Paul, the core message from state leadership remains a call for peaceful, urgent protest. "We can, we must protest loudly, urgently, but also peacefully," Governor Walz emphasised, framing the response as a critical battle for justice and community peace.
