US President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke an emergency law that allows domestic deployment of the military, as protests roil Minnesota after a federal agent shot dead a woman last week.
Tensions rose further overnight and more protests broke out as another person was shot and wounded by a federal agent in the frigid northern city that is a Democratic stronghold.
Mr Trump reacted on his social media platform Truth Social with his latest threat to invoke the Insurrection Act, a 19th century law that allows the president to deploy soldiers for law enforcement purposes to put down unrest deemed to be an insurrection.
It has not been used in more than 30 years.
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In recent months, President Trump has threatened several times to use the law as he reacted angrily to protests and court decisions blocking his drive to deploy the National Guard in his crackdown on illegal immigration.
But so far, he has stopped short of resorting to the law as he presses an agenda that has drawn accusations of authoritarian overreach and periodic mass rallies with the mantra "No Kings".
"If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don't obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of ICE, who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the Insurrection Act … and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State," Mr Trump posted on social media.
Watch: Protesters and police clash in Minneapolis
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, addressing reporters outside the White House, declined to say if she thinks Mr Trump should invoke the law.
"I think that the President has that opportunity in the future. It's his constitutional right, and it's up to him if he wants to utilise it to do it," Ms Noem said.
Asked if Mr Trump is likely to take this major step, she said "I don't know".
Tensions rose further as an immigration agent shot and injured a man in Minneapolis yesterday evening, triggering further protests.
The shooting marked the second time in a week an ICE agent had shot someone in Minneapolis.
The previous shooting resulted in the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on 7 January.
This sparked ongoing protests and a surge of federal agents into the northern US city.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said the shooting last night resulted from a struggle between an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent and a man he was trying to apprehend.
"During the struggle, the federal agent discharged his weapon, striking one adult male," Mr O'Hara told reporters at a press conference.
Amid the tussle, two people emerged from a nearby residence and attacked the federal agent with a snow shovel and a broom handle, the Department of Homeland Security said, identifying the wounded man as an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
The man suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his leg and was transported to a hospital for treatment, while the two others were taken into custody, officials said.
The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992 by President George HW Bush at the request of the Republican governor of California, who was facing unprecedented riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers who had beaten Rodney King, a Black motorist, the previous year.
City on edge after killing of Renee Good
The city has been on edge since Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot dead behind the wheel of her car by an ICE agent on 7 January, during an encounter while taking part in a neighbourhood patrol network of local activists tracking and monitoring the activities of federal officers.
Opponents of the ICE surge say Ms Good posed no physical threat to officers and they have disputed US government assertions that the agent who shot her feared she was trying to run him over.
Rather than end the ICE surge, as demanded by state and local leaders, the Trump administration instead said it would send hundreds more agents to bolster a force of about 2,000 deployed to the city earlier.
The latest shooting followed days of chaotic clashes in Minneapolis between heavily armed federal agents and civilians they stop in the streets, as well as with activists, such as Ms Good, who have showed up to observe and record such encounters.
Agents appear to be conducting roving sweeps and arresting people without warrants, based on resident accounts and videos.
Reuters journalists have documented scores of agents carrying weapons through the icy streets of residential neighborhoods, wearing military-style camouflage gear and masks that cover their faces.
They are often met by residents blowing whistles and shouting at the officers.
On occasion, the agents have smashed car windows and pulled people from their vehicles, videos show.
Some have confronted non-white US citizens, demanding to see their identification before walking away, drawing angry jeers and accusations of racism from bystanders.
The agents have used chemical irritants on protesters, sometimes firing orange pepper spray into faces at close range or igniting flash-bang grenades near groups in the street.
Disputing accusations of misconduct, the Department of Homeland Security has said its agents have increasingly been subject to assaults while trying to find and detain immigration violators.
The department also has rejected accusations of racial profiling, saying arrests are based on reasonable suspicion that individuals lack legal immigration status.
Immigration officers have also arrested US citizens for allegedly disrupting enforcement. Groups of agents have chased protesters, including at least one dressed in a giraffe costume, before wrestling them to the ground to detain them.
The non-profit World Relief said dozens of weekend arrests of legal refugees in the state, including children, were part of an effort by President Trump to re-vet refugees who entered under Mr Trump's Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
Asked about such arrests, the Department of Homeland Security referred to accusations of fraud against members of Minnesota's Somali community.
"The Trump administration will not stand idly by as the US immigration system is weaponized by those seeking to defraud the American people," a spokesperson said.
Mr Trump has seized on the fraud accusations, calling Somali immigrants in Minnesota "garbage" whom he wants deported. Administration officials have sought to tie the Minneapolis crackdown to the scandal.
Mr Trump, a Republican, has argued that large-scale surges in Democratic-led cities such as Minneapolis are necessary as authorities there do not sufficiently cooperate with immigration enforcement.
He has threatened to cut off federal funding next month for any state that includes sanctuary cities.
