According to individuals familiar with the situation, the FBI is requesting agents across the United States to travel to Minneapolis for temporary duty assignments.
The sources added that the bureau has sent communications to agents nationwide in recent days, seeking volunteers to temporarily transfer to the city. These messages did not explicitly reference the escalating anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests in Minneapolis, nor did they detail the specific tasks involved, the individuals noted.
Both the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have already increased their presence in Minneapolis. The city has become a focal point for anti-ICE protests since an officer shot and killed Renee Good, a woman in her car, on January 7.
It was not immediately clear what the FBI would ask volunteer agents traveling to Minneapolis to do. Historically, FBI agents have focused on national security-related tasks such as counter-terrorism, organized crime, and high-profile violent crimes.
FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche visited Minneapolis on Friday, per a post shared on Patel’s X account. In the post, Patel stated that the FBI is “cracking down on violent rioters and investigating the funding networks supporting the criminal actors with multiple arrests already.”
The FBI declined to comment.
President Donald Trump has also threatened to send military forces to suppress the demonstrations.
On Friday, a federal judge ordered immigration officers not to arrest, detain, pepper-spray, or otherwise retaliate against peaceful protesters in Minneapolis. This ruling came after demonstrators alleged their constitutional rights were being violated.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told Bloomberg in a statement regarding the ruling: “The Department of Homeland Security is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters.”
Immigration has not traditionally been a core mission of the FBI. According to data released by Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner in October, roughly one-quarter of the bureau’s agents were assigned to immigration-related duties.