The Army is putting 1,500 soldiers on standby for possible deployment to Minnesota

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty troops to standby in the event of a possible deployment to Minnesota, where federal authorities are conducting a large-scale immigration enforcement operation, two defense officials said Sunday.

Two infantry battalions from the Army’s 11th Airborne Division have received orders to prepare for deployment, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans. The unit is based in Alaska and specializes in working in Arctic conditions.

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One defense official said troops were on standby to deploy to Minnesota in the event President Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, a rarely used 19th-century law that allows him to employ active-duty troops in law enforcement.

The move comes just days after Trump threatened to do so to suppress protests against his administration’s anti-immigration campaign.

In an emailed statement, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell did not deny issuing the orders and said the military is “always prepared to carry out the orders of the commander in chief if asked to do so.”

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ABC News was first to report the development.

Trump said Thursday in a social media post that he would invoke the 1807 Act “if Minnesota’s corrupt politicians don’t abide by the law and stop professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the patriots at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who are just trying to do their job.”

He appeared to back away from the threat the next day, telling reporters at the White House that there was no reason to use it “at this time.”

“If I need it, I’ll use it,” Trump said. “It’s too strong.”

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Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act throughout his two terms in office. In 2020, he also threatened to use it to suppress protests after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and in recent months he threatened to use it in immigration protests.

President George H. W. Bush used the law as recently as 1992 to end unrest in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four white police officers in the Rodney King beating case.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat and a frequent target of Trump, urged the president to refrain from sending more troops.

“I’m making a direct appeal to the president: Let’s lower the temperature. Stop this retaliation campaign. This is not who we are,” Walz said last week on social media.