1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to publicly condemn President Trump's threat to invoke the Insurrection Act against protesters in Minneapolis. This dangerous escalation would deploy US military troops for domestic law enforcement purposes against community members exercising their constitutional rights. Trump's Thursday statement demanded that Minnesota officials stop what he called "professional agitators and insurrectionists" from protesting ICE operations. However, his administration has provided no evidence that these are anything other than grassroots community members protecting their neighborhoods. The president has not explained how state officials could legally prevent residents from engaging in activities explicitly protected under the First Amendment, including protesting, observing, and filming arrests. The real threat to public safety comes from federal agents themselves. A federal agent shot and wounded a man during a traffic stop in Minneapolis just this week, coming one week after Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent. As Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, stated, invoking the Insurrection Act is "unnecessary, irresponsible, and dangerous" and "the real risk to people's safety comes from ICE and other federal agents' violence against our communities." The Insurrection Act has been invoked only once since 1992, when President George H.W. Bush deployed troops during the Los Angeles riots. Using it to suppress peaceful protest represents an unprecedented federal overreach. As Shamsi noted, "It's hard to think of another instance in which a president would deploy troops to enable further federal deprivation of people's rights." I ask that you speak out against this threat and work to ensure that armed federal agents and military troops respect constitutional rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, and due process. Federal officials who violate these boundaries must be held accountable.