White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller claims local and state police in Minneapolis have been ordered to “stand down and surrender” to the feds.
The baffling statement, which seems to deliberately ignore the fact the federal government has no authority over local law enforcement, came in response to a social media post from New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, who wrote that “local cops have gone AWOL” in the face of anti-ICE protests in the city.
“Only federal officers are upholding the law,” Miller replied. “Local and state police have been ordered to stand down and surrender.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what Miller, who didn’t attend law school, was talking about.
Under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the federal government doesn’t have the authority to order local law enforcement officers to “stand down.”
And the only way local law enforcement could “surrender” would be if they were fighting a war against federal agents, which they’re not.
Miller seemed to be trying to lay the groundwork for President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allows the president to deploy the military to suppress an uprising against the federal government.
But unless the local law enforcement officers themselves were leading the so-far nonexistent rebellion, invoking the Insurrection Act would have no bearing on state and local police.
The act itself does not allow the president to declare martial law and order the military to take over the role of civilian government, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. Instead, it allows the military to assist state and federal authorities, not take their place.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House, as well as police and city officials in Minneapolis, for comment and clarification.
Last week, Trump threatened in a Truth Social post to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to local lawmakers encouraging residents to document immigration agents’ abuses in Minnesota after ICE agents shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good and later wounded a man from Venezuela.
After Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, was shot in the face while trying to drive away from the scene of a protest on Jan. 7, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to “Get the f--- out of Minneapolis.”
The Trump administration’s refusal to investigate Good’s killing has fueled further protests in the state, along with their rush to label her a “domestic terrorist” while defending the aggressive tactics used by ICE agents.
As the protests intensified, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz encouraged protesters to keep things peaceful and to record “atrocities” committed by ICE agents to use as evidence for future prosecutions.
“Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door-to-door, ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live,” he said. “It’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”
Trump responded by raging against Walz on Truth Social.
“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,” he wrote.
Miller also accused Minnesota state officials of “an insurgency against the federal government” during a Thursday appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show.
The administration is investigating Walz and Frey and for possible obstruction of law enforcement, CNN reported over the weekend.
