President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send active-duty military personnel to Minnesota, where large-scale protests continue to resist the Trump administration’s surge of thousands of federal immigration agents into the Twin Cities region. Writing on his social media platform, Trump claimed “professional agitators and insurrectionists” were “attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”

Trump’s threat came as three children were hospitalized for tear gas inhalation, after federal agents surrounded a car carrying a family of eight Wednesday evening as they were attempting to drive to their home in north Minneapolis. Witnesses say the agents deployed concussion grenades and tear gas, with at least one device rolling under the family’s van, where it exploded, set off its air bags and began filling the vehicle with toxic smoke. Bystanders then rushed to help pull the family from the van as the children inside gasped for air. Destiny Jackson told TV station KMSP her 6-month-old infant stopped breathing and lost consciousness.

Destiny Jackson: “When we did finally get out of the car, I, of course — my baby was lifeless, so I did do the CPR and mouth-to-mouth. And there were people — there was multiple people in the house who were pouring milk all over my other kids’ face and trying to get the tear gas off of them.”

On Thursday, federal agents fired tear gas outside the federal building in Minneapolis where ICE detainees are being jailed. Former prisoners there say they were tightly packed into a large holding cell, denied requests for water or to use a toilet, and witnessed other prisoners with untreated injuries.

Meanwhile, ICE’s actions have devastated Twin Cities businesses run by or patronized by immigrants. This is Luis Reyes Rojas, owner of Pineda Tacos.

Luis Reyes Rojas: “Our last resort is to go down to the basement, to the office, and hide ourselves. That’s what we’re doing. It’s worse than war. We have a plan A, plan B and plan C, because we don’t know how much longer we can endure this.”