Anti-ICE riots reveal the left has learned nothing. It's just handed Trump a gift
Editor's note: The following column first appeared in City Journal.
Over the weekend, news of federal enforcement agencies conducting immigration raids sparked massive protests in Los Angeles. The city's mayor, Karen Bass, had denounced the enforcement campaign on X last Friday, accusing the Trump administration of sowing terror and defiantly stating, "We will not stand for this." Also fanning the flames was California's governor, Gavin Newsom, who claimed that the raids were "tearing families apart" and called the immigration arrests "chaotic," "reckless," and "cruel."
Progressive groups' denunciations of the raids were even harsher. The ACLU called the enforcement plan an "oppressive and vile paramilitary operation," while a spokesperson for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network referred to the arrests as kidnappings.
As word of the campaign spread, the protests quickly devolved into riots. Social media feeds were soon filled with scenes reminiscent of the violent unrest of summer 2020: looting, crowds surrounding burning vehicles, rocks thrown at law-enforcement cars, American flags set aflame, and the 101 freeway shut down.
Such violence should have drawn swift and widespread condemnation from both left and right. Instead, prominent Democrats have largely remained silent on the mayhem, reserving their outrage for President Donald Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard to restore order—a move that sparked yet another round of denunciations from the usual suspects.
Even some of the president's critics who have called for an end to the violence seem motivated less by the belief that property destruction and assaults on police are wrong, and more by concerns that such unrest could bolster support for immigration enforcement or damage Democrats politically.
Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Angelinos not to "fall into the trap that extremists are hoping for." The Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh, an open-borders advocate, lamented that "[s]upport for nativism depends on chaos," and argued that "[s]upport for mass deportations would wither without rioting." But who are the extremists in this situation? Surely it's the angry group of rioters setting cars ablaze and hurling rocks at passing police vehicles from highway overpasses.
Appalling as the Left's response to the riots has been, it is not surprising. The unrest only reinforces a connection many Americans have already made between progressive causes and the violence too often carried out in their name.
The chaos in L.A. follows the deadly and destructive riots that swept cities across the nation in 2020, as well as the more recent demonstrations sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Since that date, pro-Palestinian activists have harassed Jewish students on college and university campuses; shut down streets and transit hubs; set the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania's house on fire; shot and killed two Israeli embassy employees outside the Jewish Museum in D.C.; and hit elderly Jews peacefully marching in support of Israel with Molotov cocktails in Colorado.
Democrats face a real political problem. It's not hard to see how this most recent episode of "fiery, but mostly peaceful" protests could boost support for the president's immigration enforcement campaign— especially given that many of those wreaking havoc in L.A. are waving the Mexican flag or burning the flag of the country in which they demand illegal immigrants be allowed to stay.
Consider the contrast: on one side, an administration following through on the president's promise to strengthen immigration enforcement, in part to make cities safer; on the other, rioters waving foreign flags and setting streets ablaze. It's hard to imagine a more unsympathetic image for the president's critics.
If the Left wants to shed its reputation for siding with arsonists who block city streets, seize campus quads, and attack police, its leaders could start by condemning the lawlessness in Los Angeles and pledging to work with the president to restore order. Their refusal to do so lies at the heart of Donald Trump's political strength—and remains a vivid sign of a lesson still unlearned.
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