Vance: No Need Yet for Insurrection Act in Minnesota as Federal Agents Battle Chaos
Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that invoking the Insurrection Act in Minnesota is not necessary “right now,” despite escalating tensions in Minneapolis following weeks of unrest targeting ICE operations.
Vance landed in the Twin Cities to meet with federal immigration officers and assess the situation firsthand. Since the fatal shooting of a pro-ICE activist earlier this month, left-wing agitators have trailed immigration enforcement officers, attempting to obstruct arrests of illegal immigrants across Minneapolis and St. Paul.
“I’ve tried to understand this as well as I possibly could,” Vance told The Daily Wire. “And my understanding is what invoking the Insurrection Act would allow the federal government to use the military for local law enforcement operations. Right now, we don’t think that we need that.”
.@VP tells @MaryMargOlohan that he and @POTUS don’t believe the Insurrection Act is necessary at this point in Minneapolis:
“Right now, we don’t think that we need that. Now, the president could change his mind…but right now, we think that federal law enforcement officers… pic.twitter.com/f9sQzudwmc
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 22, 2026
He noted that the situation could change, and President Trump retains full authority to escalate if necessary.
“What I do worry about … is if the chaos gets worse, if more and more ICE agents start getting assaulted, if other law enforcement officers start getting assaulted, that would be a real problem,” he said.
President Donald Trump has publicly floated the idea of using the Insurrection Act to crack down on what he has called “professional agitators and insurrectionists.” The move would authorize him to deploy the U.S. military and federalize the National Guard to restore order. Talk of such action intensified after a violent confrontation in which a federal agent shot an illegal immigrant who had attacked him with a snow shovel and broom while resisting arrest.
Still, Trump said last week he saw no immediate reason to invoke the 1807 law.
Vance placed some of the blame for the deteriorating conditions on Minneapolis’s leadership, criticizing the city’s police department for allegedly refusing to cooperate with federal officers.
“The Minneapolis Police Department has stand-down orders preventing local officers from assisting federal immigration agents,” Vance said. “That’s the problem.”
He described the current security posture as untenable, with an overextended ICE presence not just trying to enforce immigration law, but simply to protect themselves.
“We have so many people here that we do not wanna have here. I do not want so many ICE officers in Minneapolis right now,” he said. “Good lord, it’s really freaking cold outside, but they’re here not even to enforce immigration laws, but to protect the people from the rioters. That’s an absurd state of affairs.”
For now, the administration appears to be holding back from deploying military force, but with federal agents under siege and local officials unwilling to assist, the pressure to act is building.