In better times with better political leaders, the tragic shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis would have caused each side in the fight over Immigration and Customs Enforcement to de-escalate and try to calm the furies. Instead, both sides are courting more confrontation that could end in even more bloodshed.

Mr. Trump’s latest move Thursday was to threaten to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests in the Twin Cities. He has the authority to do this under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which means he could call on the military to restore public order.

But events in Minnesota are so far nowhere near the standard for riots and destruction that would justify such a move. George H.W. Bush invoked the law in 1992 to put down the riots in Los Angeles.

In Minneapolis the protests are largely peaceful, marred by some individual acts of obstruction or violence against ICE agents. These can be met with arrests and prosecutions case by case, which ICE and other agents seem capable of handling.

Triggering the Insurrection Act might be White House aide Stephen Miller’s fondest wish, or so it seems. But it could incite more protests, and it might cause more voters to wonder why the country is so unhappy in the second Trump term. It would surely motivate more Democrats to vote in November unless there is a broad threat to public safety that law enforcement can’t handle.

Yet there is no denying that some ICE opponents seem eager to incite agents into a belligerent response. They are taunting ICE agents in the street, recording them on their phones, and often using their own SUVs to obstruct ICE vehicles. Obstructing a federal officer in the course of doing his duty is illegal and deserves to be prosecuted. Acts of civil disobedience have a long and sometimes noble history, but the actors must also face the legal consequences.

We should add that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has lived down to expectations. His video on Wednesday night urging residents to leave their homes, and then monitor and record ICE agents to stop “atrocities” against the people of the state is courting more ugly incidents. What “atrocities” is he talking about? The shooting of Renee Good was awful, but whether it was a crime is far from clear based on the video evidence.

We believe Mr. Trump’s policy of mass deportation is unwise. Targeting criminal migrants has popular support for obvious reasons. But too often his ICE sweeps are catching otherwise law-abiding migrants who are awaiting their asylum hearing or have been in the U.S. for years.

When Mr. Miller set his target for ICE of 3,000 migrant arrests a day, he set in motion enforcement that was bound to result in overkill and family breakups. Americans dislike it when police have to meet parking-ticket quotas, much less body counts for arrests.

But Mr. Trump won the election in part as a response to Joe Biden’s de facto open-border immigration policy. The President has the legal authority to unleash ICE, and the agents are doing what they are told to do. The way to defeat the Trump policy is at the ballot box, not by obstructing agents in violation of the law. There’s an election in nine months.

ONLINE: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/minneapolis-ice-protesters-donald-trump-stephen-miller-tim-walz-renee-good-6261ab9e?mod=editorials_article_pos9