The Trump White House has been demanding many, many more deportations, but hasn’t been getting enough of the “worst of the worst” it is supposedly targeting.
So, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) resolved to target the more abundant “not so bad.”
Going after whatever murderers and rapists actually did cross the southern border was one thing most people can applaud. Going after people who are just seeking to make an honest living was sure to trigger protests.
But Donald Trump always welcomes any opportunity to justify his fearmongering about chaos in the streets—and what better place than a deep-blue state like California, which is headed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom (whom Trump always calls Newscum)?
Even relatively minor disturbances could be hyped into a pretext for Trump to deploy active-duty military, as he wanted to do when Black Lives Matter staged protests outside the White House during his first term. He was dissuaded from doing so in 2020 by the combined objections of Attorney General William Barr and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, but always expressed regret about not sending in troops—even though the peaceful D.C. protesters were cleared with unnecessary brutality by federal law enforcement officers.
Trump is now getting another chance, this time with an attorney general and secretary of defense who only know to utter variations of, “Yes, Sir! Only you can save the nation, and thereby save civilization!”
On Friday, ICE executed four search warrants for what a criminal complaint described as “businesses suspected of unlawfully employing illegal aliens.” That included a clothing company on E. 15th Street in Los Angeles. The raid was in progress at 11:10 am, when an undercover officer posted by an outside gate saw a woman arrive.
“This woman started expressing her views against immigration enforcement and began using her phone to film law enforcement officers on the other side of the gate,” the complaint says.
By 11:49 am, the woman was joined by a handful of other people, among them David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California, which represents immigrant workers among others. Photographs taken by the undercover officer included in the complaint indicate that a small number of protesters watched as Huerta blocked a white law enforcement van from entering the gate, his hands on his hips. A masked officer in body armor approached him.
“Because HUERTA was being uncooperative, the officer put his hands on HUERTA in an attempt to move him out of the path of the vehicle. I saw HUERTA push back, and in response, the officer pushed HUERTA to the ground,” an ICE supervisor says in the complaint. “The officer and I then handcuffed HUERTA and arrested him. Other protestors continued to block the van and had to be physically removed from the van’s path.”
Huerta was injured and was taken to the hospital before being lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Center, the local federal lock-up. People began to protest outside the facility and the federal officers protecting it used flash-bangs and considerable quantities of tear gas. The feds called LAPD for help. An LAPD mobile field force of some 40 cops and eight sergeants got there as quickly as was possible through the traffic and crowds.
“But they find that they’re in the middle of like a cloud of tear gas, which no one told them about and they don’t have the equipment for, so, you know, that kind of slows things down,” a senior law enforcement source told The Daily Beast.
At 9 a.m. on Saturday, California state Assemblymember José Luis Solache Jr. happened to notice a uniformed Border Patrol officer getting off the freeway at Alondra Boulevard in Paramount, which is in his district. He circled back and posted on Instagram what he saw outside the Paramount Business Center across from Home Depot.
“There were seven trucks of Border Patrol here entering this business,” he said. “I can’t go inside. There’s a fence. I don’t know what they’re doing inside. But, I mean, why were they in Paramount?”
Word spread at social media speed, and passing cars began to honk. Protesters arrived on the scene and the easy assumption was that ICE had been preparing to arrest the day laborers who gather outside Home Depot. Two dozen uniformed officers appeared, some masked, at least one holding a long gun. The crowd became more vocal and somebody began playing mariachi music. More officers arrived, these ones wearing helmets and gas masks. They ended up firing tear gas and flash-bangs and rubber bullets.
Protests there and elsewhere continued into Saturday night. A senior law enforcement source told The Daily Beast that there had been no raids there and that the fenced-in building from Home Depot is rented by ICE and used as an unmarked operations facility.
A number of white ICE vehicles that exited the area were pelted with rocks by protesters. Video of that prompted Trump’s new FBI director to further hype the disorder by putting a rock-thrower on the agency’s 10 Most Wanted List.
“The FBI is seeking the public’s help in identifying a man who allegedly threw rocks at a law enforcement vehicles on Alondra Boulevard around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, injuring a federal officer and damaging government vehicles,” announced a wanted poster with several still images. “A reward of up to $50,000 is offered for information leading to his arrest.”
Footage of the disorder reached the attention of the White House. That included several self-driving cars that were set alight and were in flames so long that a cop dubbed them “self-burning.”
On Saturday, Trump issued an executive order deploying a state’s national guard without the governor’s approval, which has not been done in more than half a century. Trump ignored Newsom’s warning that it would only inflame the situation. Trump said he was sending in 2,000 California guardsmen and women, but only around 300 were immediately dispatched. Trump went online to declare that he and his team had saved the day.
“A once great American City, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations — But these lawless riots only strengthen our resolve. I am directing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, in coordination with all other relevant Departments and Agencies, to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots. Order will be restored.”
The Northern Command of the U.S. Department of Defense said the troops were from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and were being sent to three locations “to protect federal property and personnel.” They were not yet on the streets of Los Angeles when the president suffered an instance of what might be called Trump Rearrangement Syndrome.
“Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes and unrest,” he posted.
The underfunded and undermanned LAPD kept at it. But more cars burned in several locations. A man on a motorbike rode through the smoke clutching a Mexican flag, playing into Trump’s contention that America has to fight off what is at once an invasion and an insurrection.
“We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California,” Trump said. “If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”
He went on, insisting “Newscum” and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass should be saying, “THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.’”
He added, “Instead, they choose to lie to the People of California and America by saying that we weren’t needed, and that these are peaceful protests. Just one look at the pictures and videos of the Violence and Destruction tells you all you have to know. We will always do what is needed to keep our Citizens SAFE, so we can, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
On Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Sean Hannity on Fox that the FBI had identified the rock thrower. Bondi further upped the hype by offering an on-air message to the suspect: “You can’t hide.”
But there are others to worry about. Newsom was right when he warned about the effect of bringing in the military. The accompanying news footage and online uproar prompted a wide range of protesters to join in, including some more bent on trouble than on peacefully imparting a message in the way that makes America truly great.
Trump was no doubt delighted. He has finally been able to use disorder as a pretext to do what he was dissuaded from doing in 2020. Northern Command announced on Monday that 700 active-duty Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division were poised to join the guard unit deployed in Los Angeles.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said when asked when the Marines were being sent into the streets.
The very able Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, said in a statement that his department was more than capable of handling the protests without the Marines.
“The arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles—absent clear coordination—presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city,” he added.
A senior law enforcement source who had dealt firsthand with Trump suggested to the Daily Beast that the commander–in-chief was excited by the very possibility of being able to send active-duty military against protesters.
“That’s what gives him a boner,” the source said.
The post Opinion: How ICE’s L.A. Raids Spiraled Into the ‘Riot’ Trump Thirsted For appeared first on The Daily Beast.
