'Unnecessary, Irresponsible, and Dangerous': ACLU Slams Trump's Insurrection Act Threat

President Donald Trump and other White House officials have sought to portray protesters against their mass deportation campaign, including in Minneapolis, as out of control and violent—but in condemning the president's threat to invoke to Insurrection Act in order to crack down on growing dissent, a top civil liberties group Thursday said it's clear where the danger to public safety is coming from.

"The real risk to people’s safety comes from [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and other federal agents’ violence against our communities," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project. “What’s needed now is not federal escalation, but deescalation."

Instead, Trump said Thursday morning—hours after a federal agent shot and wounded a man during a traffic stop in Minneapolis and a week after Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent—officials in Minnesota must "stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of ICE who are only trying to do their job.”

Trump officials have provided no evidence that protesters in Minneapolis or elsewhere are "professional agitators" rather than grassroots community members who have banded together to protect their neighborhoods.

The president didn't detail how he believes officials in the state could bar residents from protesting ICE or observing and filming their violent arrests—which, as Department of Homeland Security officials on the ground recently reminded agents, are protected activities under the First Amendment and other statutes—but said if they didn't do so he would invoke the Insurrection Act.

Invoking the law would allow Trump to deploy US military troops to Minneapolis for law enforcement purposes. The president—who has been accused of inciting an attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021 after losing the 2020 election—has threatened to use the Insurrection Act at other times to clamp down on protests against his anti-immigration agenda. The law is rarely used and was last invoked in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush during riots in Los Angeles.

"It’s hard to think of another instance in which a president would deploy troops to enable further federal deprivation of people’s rights."

Shamsi said that "invoking the Insurrection Act is unnecessary, irresponsible, and dangerous."

"President Trump is continuing to stoke fear in a situation his administration created by unleashing lawless, armed federal agents against our communities," she said. "It’s hard to think of another instance in which a president would deploy troops to enable further federal deprivation of people’s rights."

Even if Trump were to send the US military to Minneapolis or other cities, Shamsi issued a reminder that "no matter what uniform they wear, armed federal agents and military troops are bound by our constitutional rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, and due process. If troops or federal agents violate these boundaries, they and their leadership must be held accountable."