Trump backs down on insurrection law as Democrats go on the offensive

President Trump appeared to walk away Friday from his threat to send military forces to Minneapolis. But Democratic officials and activists told members of Congress they felt like they were already living under military occupation.

Convoys of agents from federal immigration agencies swarmed the city in the first two weeks of 2026, spreading fear and violating constitutional rights, officials said in testimony at an unofficial hearing at the Minnesota Senate building. They accused the Trump administration of profiling residents of color, tearing apart immigrant families and unfairly detaining U.S. citizens as part of a campaign of political retaliation.

“There is no modern precedent for this level of federal overreach,” Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who represents Minneapolis, told a panel of more than two dozen fellow Democrats in Congress, calling the actions violent and illegal.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, called the allegations of racial profiling a “disgusting accusation.”

“A person’s immigration status makes them a target for authorities, not their skin color, race or ethnicity,” she said in a statement Friday.

Congressional Democrats have faced growing pressure from constituents to respond to the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign in U.S. cities, even as White House officials have accused local and state Democratic leaders of encouraging attacks on immigration enforcement agents, blaming them for the violence.

On Thursday, Mr. Trump suggested he might invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows presidents to deploy troops on U.S. soil to quell an invasion or insurrection under certain legal conditions. The Pentagon quietly alerted 200 Texas National Guard troops this week to be ready to deploy to Minnesota in case Mr. Trump follows through, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Texas Guard soldiers have been on standby since returning from Chicago late last year. But by Friday, Mr. Trump had already walked back that suggestion — following a pattern of talking about invoking the law but failing to implement it.

“I don’t think I need it right now,” he told reporters as he left the White House to spend the weekend in Florida. Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota on Thursday urged Mr. Trump to drop his fiery rhetoric. “Let’s lower the temperature,” the governor wrote on social media. “Stop this campaign of retaliation.”

Immigration has long been a thorny issue for Democrats, and the party has struggled to reach consensus on its policies and messaging. Without control from either branch of Congress, Democratic lawmakers have limited power to influence policy decisions.

But as Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have conducted increasingly high-profile and disruptive raids, Democrats have pushed to limit agents’ actions, including banning them from wearing masks, requiring them to wear body cameras and requiring that they produce arrest warrants.

As Congress faces a Jan. 30 deadline to pass a spending bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security, some Democrats at Friday’s hearing said they would oppose any measure to fund the agency that did not include additional safeguards on ICE.

Polls indicate that a growing number of Americans are increasingly concerned about the actions of federal immigration officials. Those concerns spread last week in Minneapolis after an ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good, sparking protests and outrage. Another shooting by a federal agent in the city this week has further heightened tensions.

During protests following the second shooting, in which a man was wounded in the leg, federal agents withdrew without recovering at least two of their vehicles. Several protesters broke in, taking out documents and other items.

Federal prosecutors charged a 33-year-old man, Raul Gutierrez, on Friday with illegal possession of a government rifle and suppressor. They said he stole them from the back of an unmarked FBI vehicle. The lawyer listed for Mr. Gutierrez in court records declined to comment.

Friday’s hearing in the state Senate, in which Democrats blamed the Trump administration for escalating tensions and violence, was hosted by Ms. Omar and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Although the session was conducted as an oversight hearing, its deliberations will not become part of the official congressional records and the panel does not have subpoena power.

In impassioned testimony, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Kaohly Her, the newly elected mayor of St. Paul, told the panel that federal agents knocked on doors and questioned residents in the streets about their citizenship status, in operations that did not appear methodical or well-planned, resulting in fear and injury.

“They pulled people out of their cars and stopped them on the main streets,” Mr Frey said. “We’ve had young children who have been injured by inhaling some form of gas. We’ve had loose dogs that have been left unattended on the streets.”

He added: “This doesn’t make Minneapolis safer. »

Other witnesses described agents gassing high school students and carrying away immigrant parents in front of their crying children. Ms Her said she had received reports that officers were going door to door asking “where the Asians live”.

One resident, Patty O’Keefe, told the panel that she and another friend were arrested while following ICE vehicles, whistling and honking their horns. The officers smashed their car windows and threw pepper spray, she said. One of the officers said, “That’s why that lesbian bitch died,” Ms. O’Keefe recalled, an apparent reference to Ms. Good.

Ms. O’Keefe and her friend were held in a federal building for more than eight hours without being able to make phone calls before being released without charges, she said.

In a statement responding to the allegations made during the hearing, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called them “false smears,” adding: “Anyone who points the finger at law enforcement officers instead of criminals is only doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.” »

The report was provided by Nicolas Bogel-Burroughs, Michael Gold, Shawn McCreesh And Eric Schmitt.