Reuters: Pentagon prepares troops for possible deployment to Minnesota, where protests against migrant deportations are taking place

The Pentagon has ordered about 1 500 regular US Army troops stationed in Alaska to be prepared for a possible transfer to the state of Minnesota, where protests against the deportation of migrants are taking place.

This was reported to Reuters by sources.

The military has been put on alert in case the protests escalate into serious violence. It is currently unknown whether a decision will be made to actually deploy troops.

Tensions in Minneapolis have risen sharply since a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Goode, a mother of three, on Jan. 7. The city has since seen massive protests, and President Donald Trumpʼs administration has deployed about 3 000 federal immigration and border agents to the area.

The US president has previously threatened to invoke the Riot Suppression Act, which allows the use of troops to suppress domestic unrest. At the same time, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that military intervention would only make the situation worse. According to him, the city is safe and does not need additional forces.

Clashes between protesters and federal agents have intensified after an increased presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who are conducting raids in areas with Somali, Hmong and Mexican communities.

In particular, this week in the city of Willmar, employees of a family-run Mexican restaurant were detained, and in St. Paul, security forces took a man from the Hmong community out of his home in full view of neighbors.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has mobilized the stateʼs National Guard to maintain law and order and protect the right to peaceful protest. Local authorities accuse the White House of excessive intervention and using isolated incidents as a pretext for violent action.

Trumpʼs immigration policy

On the first day of his presidency, January 21, 2025, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting the issuance of American citizenship documents to children born in the United States to parents who are either illegally in the United States or in situations where the mother is temporarily in the United States, for example, on a visa, and the father is not a citizen.

And the next day, he signed an executive order closing the countryʼs southern border with Mexico to "illegal migrants" and ordering the deportation of those who entered the United States illegally from Mexico.

The United States subsequently suspended a number of programs that allowed immigrants to temporarily settle in the country. In addition to Ukraine, the programs offered temporary protection to immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela.

At the end of March, Trump stripped 530 000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans of their legal status, which allowed them to stay legally in the United States. Already in November, the United States planned to deport dozens of Ukrainians. Among them were even those emigrants who left for America during the Soviet Union.

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