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“National Guard troops began protecting immigration agents as they made arrests in Los Angeles on Tuesday, an expansion of their duties that had been limited to protecting federal property…
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom had asked a federal court to block the Trump administration from using the National Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles, saying it would only heighten tensions and promote civil unrest. Newsom filed the emergency request after Trump ordered the deployment to LA of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines following protests of the president’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws…
“The federal government said Newsom was seeking an unprecedented and dangerous order that would interfere with its ability to carry out enforcement operations. A judge set a hearing for Thursday… Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday ‘to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting.’” AP News
Here’s our recent coverage of the situation in Los Angeles. The Flip Side
The left is alarmed by the deployment of troops, arguing that it was not necessary.
“Trump’s threats to inject federal forces into blue jurisdictions are only one prong of his campaign to subjugate them. His administration has already arrested a mayor and a US Representative in New Jersey; a judge in Milwaukee; and a union leader in Los Angeles — all on charges of interfering with immigration enforcement…
“These steps, along with his calling up the California Guard and deploying the Marines, are surely meant to signal that Trump intends to use any means available against states and cities that resist him — just as he has taken a series of unprecedented moves to punish prominent universities and prestigious law firms. Trump is governing as a wartime president, with blue America, rather than any foreign adversary, as the enemy.”
Ronald Brownstein, Bloomberg
Some argue, “Yes, cars were set on fire in one part of the sprawling, multi-block protest. Yes, fireworks were launched at cops—a handful, sporadically. But it should be noted that these were launched long after these police officers began unloading flash bang after flash bang, rubber bullet after rubber bullet, into a largely peaceful crowd…
“We’ve got drone footage of a mounted officer using his horse to trample a protester, who lies prone on the ground, surrounded by mounted police. We’ve got cops beating protesters with truncheons, cops deploying tear gas, cops bringing box after box of ammunition to the line so they could fire again and again and again into crowds of protesters exercising tremendous restraint throughout the day.”
Laura Jedeed, The Nation
“There is a mile of daylight between protecting a forward operating base in Iraq and a federal immigration agent in Los Angeles… Equipped with only their firearms, and not with less-lethal munitions, how might [soldiers] react to a thrown object with only a split second to make a decision? A water bottle and a Molotov cocktail look very much alike when they’re making their way toward your face…
“Indeed, there are past examples of American military crowd-control efforts going disastrously wrong, including the 2003 killing of at least 13 civilians in Baghdad during a protest that violated a curfew… Troops marshaling violence against the citizens they are sworn to defend is anathema to Americans. It is a cultural taboo whose violation lives in infamous memory. We recall them as chilling exceptions to what we consider ‘normal’—Kent State, the ’67 Detroit Riot.”
Myke Cole, Slate
Others worry, “The chaos in Southern California could have been designed in a lab to exploit Democratic weak spots… There might very well be a universe where it makes sense for Democrats—already saddled with a dreadful image on crime and immigration—to train their fire on Trump and the National Guard instead of anti-deportation rioters. However, it is not the universe we currently inhabit.”
Ruy Teixeira, Free Press
The right supports the deployment of troops and condemns the violence.
The right supports the deployment of troops and condemns the violence.
“In 1965, during the civil rights era, President Lyndon Johnson wanted to send the National Guard to Alabama to protect participants in the Selma to Montgomery march. Alabama Gov. George Wallace did not want that. Johnson won the argument because he was the president of the United States. Now, Trump can send the National Guard to Los Angeles because he is the president of the United States…
“State and local governments do not have any authority to enforce immigration law. The sole power to do that lies with the federal government… Bass and Newsom are also on the wrong side of the politics of immigration. A recent CBS News poll found that 54% of those surveyed approved of the ‘Trump administration’s program to deport immigrants illegally in the United States.’ More people also said the deportations are making people safer than not, although fewer liked Trump’s methods.”
Byron York, Washington Examiner
“The protesters against Trump immigration and deportation policy who chose to cross the line from peaceful protest to riot were especially foolish. First of all, polls have regularly shown that the public is behind a policy of strict border enforcement and significant deportations, but uneasy with how Trump is going about it. The best possible remedy for Trump is to recast the other side of that debate as the aggressors — a role they are eagerly embracing…
“Trump has no downside here. He knows he was elected to restore some basic, commonsense ideas that are overwhelmingly popular like public order in the streets, and that Newsom, Bass, and Kamala Harris are about the least sympathetic adversaries possible…
“Why did Ronald Reagan come down so hard on the air traffic controller strike? Partly out of principle but also partly to send a message: There’s a new sheriff in town, and you’re not messing with him… All of the incentives for Trump, against people burning Waymos and wearing keffiyehs and waving Mexican flags, point in the direction of doing the same.”
Dan McLaughlin, National Review
“The ICE actions that set off the mayhem of the last few days were targeted arrests of repeat immigration offenders and illegal immigrants already ordered removed, as well as worksite raids of the sort that must happen if there is going to be any hope of substantially reducing the number of illegal immigrants living and working in the United States…
“State and city officials are condemning the activation of the Guard as a ‘provocation,’ although usually the only people provoked by troops standing in front of a federal building to keep it from getting attacked are those who might want to attack it… There’s much talk of what can be done to ‘de-escalate’ the situation. The first step would be for left-wing residents of L.A. to stop harassing and assaulting federal officers for doing their jobs.”
The Editors, National Review
