Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said Thursday on Newsmax that people accused of attacking federal officers during unrest tied to immigration enforcement in Minnesota will be prosecuted under federal law, as President Donald Trump warned he might invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops in Minneapolis.
Lyons, appearing on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," described what he called repeated attacks on federal personnel, including fireworks, Molotov cocktails, rocks and other projectiles, and damage to vehicles.
"We're fortunate enough to have Secretary [Kristi] Noem, who has given us all the tools available that we need to handle this situation. But you see, night after night, we have almost 3,000 federal special agents and officers on the ground there, and we are making significant arrests and significant strides," he said.
"You're [also] going to see a lot of search warrants, a lot of criminal indictments coming down on the [Minnesota] fraud," he added. "Homeland Security Investigations is working with the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI. We are bringing criminal charges and indictments on all these individuals."
Lyons did not specify which statutes would be used or how many suspects would be charged.
The comments came as Trump threatened Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act if Minnesota leaders do not stop what he called "professional agitators and insurrectionists" targeting ICE personnel, writing in a social media post:
"If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don't obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State."
The Insurrection Act is a set of federal authorities that can allow the president to deploy military forces domestically in limited circumstances. Title 10 of the U.S. Code includes provisions on federal aid to state governments and on the use of the militia and armed forces to enforce federal authority when certain conditions are met.
Democrat Gov. Tim Walz responded on X with an appeal for calmer rhetoric and peaceful protest, urging Minnesotans to speak out "loudly" and "urgently" while warning against "fanning the flames of chaos."
Federal officials have said tensions intensified after a second shooting in a week involving immigration officers during operations in Minneapolis.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said a federal officer shot a man in the leg after an encounter that DHS described as an attack on an officer during an attempted arrest.
Earlier, a Jan. 7 shooting by an immigration officer left a Minnesota woman, Renee Good, dead, with state and federal officials offering sharply different versions of what happened.
Trump has already sent a large contingent of federal law enforcement officers to Minnesota, with nearly 3,000 deployed.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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