Overview
- About 1,500 active-duty soldiers from the 11th Airborne Division were placed on prepare-to-deploy orders for possible use in Minnesota, according to multiple news outlets citing defense officials, after President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act.
- Minnesota’s National Guard is mobilized and staged but not deployed to city streets, with state officials saying troops stand ready to support public safety and peaceful assembly.
- U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez issued a preliminary injunction barring federal agents from arresting or detaining peaceful protesters and from stopping drivers without reasonable articulable suspicion.
- Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the influx of roughly 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol personnel an ‘invasion’ as the Justice Department investigates him and Governor Tim Walz for possible obstruction of immigration enforcement, even as the state and cities sue to limit the federal operation.
- Protests continued through frigid conditions, including a confrontation where hundreds of anti-ICE demonstrators forced a small far-right group to retreat, while internal strains deepened with reported FBI requests for agents to assist and multiple resignations among Minnesota federal prosecutors.