US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops to quell persistent protests against the federal officers sent to Minneapolis to enforce his administration’s massive immigration crackdown.

The president’s threat comes a day after a federal immigration officer shot and wounded a Minneapolis man who had attacked the officer with a shovel and broom handle. That shooting further heightened the fear and anger radiating across the Minnesota city since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Renee Good in the head.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to deploy the US military or federalise the National Guard for domestic policing, over the objections of state governors.

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump said in a social media post.

Requests for comment have been sent to the offices of Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

ICE is an agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).