Pentagon Reportedly Puts 1,500 Troops On Standby For Possible Minnesota Deployment

The Pentagon has ordered some 1,500 active-duty troops to prepare for a potential deployment to Minnesota, several news outlets reported on Sunday.  The order, first reported by ABC News, comes days after President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to put down protests that erupted in the aftermath of the killing of Minneapolis woman Renee Good by an immigration agent. However, Trump later told reporters he didn’t think there was “any reason right now to use it,” Sean Parnell, Chief Pentagon Spokesman, told TIME in an emailed response to a query about the potential deployment: “The Department of War is always prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief if called upon.” Read more: Judge Imposes Sweeping Restrictions on the Tactics ICE Can Use Against Protesters in Minnesota The soldiers reportedly on standby are from the 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska and specializes in Arctic warfare.  Active duty soldiers are barred from carrying out domestic law enforcement duties unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act, which hasn’t been done since 1992. Then George H.W. Bush deployed troops to Los Angeles at the California governor’s request to deal with riots that broke out after a jury acquitted four police officers who were filmed beating Rodney King.  The deployment of active duty troops to put down protests would mark a dramatic escalation in Trump’s use of force in Democratic-run cities during his second term. That use of force has been accompanied by federal prosecutions of elected Democratic politicians and threats to withhold federal funds from Democratic cities. Local city and state leaders have said they do not want or need federal troops or agents in the city. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said Sunday the deployment of the U.S. military to handle protests would be a ”shocking step.”  Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz also called for calm.  “I’m making a direct appeal to the President: Let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are,” Walz said in a post on social media. Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) this week launched criminal investigations into both Walz and Frey, according to news reports, for comments they made about the protests.   The Trump Administration has already sent 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents to deal with largely peaceful protests in Minneapolis. During those protests, federal agents have been accused of excessive force, the use of pepper spray, and arbitrary detentions, including of U.S. citizens. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a 72-page lawsuit on Thursday on behalf of three people alleging that ICE violated citizens’ constitutional rights in Minnesota and relied on racial profiling in its crackdown on protestors. “Masked federal agents in the thousands are violently stopping and arresting countless Minnesotans based on nothing more than their race and perceived ethnicity irrespective of their citizenship or immigration status, or their personal circumstances,” the lawsuit reads.  Trump has deployed National Guard troops several times during his second term, including to Los Angeles in June 2025 and Washington, D.C., in August 2025. The President also deployed 700 U.S. Marines to Los Angeles during protests against immigration raids there, but the soldiers were tasked with protecting federal property.