The governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, declared an emergency and asked his National Guard to prepare after the death this Wednesday of a woman shot by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), which has increased protests.
Walz announced the measures to “be ready” to face “civil unrest” when remembering the summer of 2020, when in the middle of the pandemic there were massive protests against police brutality after the death at the hands of the police of the African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis, the same city in which ICE now killed the woman, identified as a 37-year-old white American.
“We have activated the State Emergency Operations Center, the leadership of the state patrol of the National Guard is connected to the Minneapolis Police Department,” said the official, from the Democratic Party, in a press conference.
The state leader notified these actions in light of the increase in demonstrations after the death of the woman, whom the President of the United States, Donald Trump, accused moments before of being a “professional agitator” for “aggressively running over an ICE officer” who shot “in self-defense.”
Additional information: ICE officer shoots and kills woman in Minnesota during ‘largest DHS operation to date’
But the governor described the event as “unnecessary” and “preventable,” noting that the state faces a “chaotic situation caused by the largest deployment in American history of federal agents without communication with the locals.”
“I want to be very careful here because Donald Trump will make this all about me. He will make this about politics. This is about public safety and normality,” he said.
Despite the “anger,” the governor urged protesters to protest peacefully and “not take the bait” of the federal government, since Minneapolis was the epicenter of serious demonstrations and riots nationwide in 2020 after the death of Floyd during Trump’s first administration (2017-2021).
The official did not clarify under what scenario he would activate the National Guard or the State Patrol, but promised that these elements would be there to “protect” the population and their “constitutional rights.”
“We have about 7,500 troops at our training sites throughout the state. What happens is that you give the National Guard a warning order, which is a warning that something could happen,” he said.
The governor has questioned the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) argument that agents shot the woman, whom he accused of “domestic terrorism,” as an act of self-defense during a protest against increasing immigration raids in Minnesota.
The events occur in the midst of controversy in the state, where Walz, former Democratic candidate for the US vice presidency in 2024, announced this Monday that he will not seek a third term due to the controversy over million-dollar fraud related to child care programs linked to the Somali community.
With information from EFE
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