ICE is enforcing the law. Trump is right to send National Guard to protect them.
The images of fires burning and smoking rising above the streets of Los Angeles make America's second-largest city look like a war zone.
But it's not war. It's what happens when a Republican president enforces the law in a state as far left and as lost as California.
President Donald Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to restore peace in Los Angeles after protesters set fires, defaced buildings, slashed vehicle tires and hurled pieces of concrete at local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
A Department of Homeland Security news release on June 7 noted that ICE agents − and their families − have endured a surge in threats and harassment.
I've watched this violence, aimed at law enforcement officers who are attempting to uphold our nation's immigration laws, with growing anger.
If California is one version of America and the rest of the country is another version, I know which America I choose. It's the same one a majority of Americans also have chosen. Polls have consistently shown that voters side with Trump and other Republicans on immigration and border security, not the lawlessness and chaos that Democrats and their progressive allies promote.
And to answer the question I'll inevitably get: Yes, I voted for this, and I'd vote for this again.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced Trump's decision to send in the National Guard as "inflammatory." That's not a good look for a governor with national ambitions.
Newsom's staff hasn't helped him, either. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X a photo of demonstrators posing in front of a fire while one person waved a Mexican flag. Hegseth wrote: "Another 'mostly peaceful protest' brought to you by @GavinNewsom. DEPORT."
Newsom's press office responded: "Are you going to send in the Marines the next time the Philadelphia Eagles win, too?"
Comparing violent protests against federal officers enforcing the law to a Super Bowl celebration that went too far is tone deaf, even for the governor of California.
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It's important to note that ICE agents aren't arresting just anyone. The Department of Homeland Security reported that the arrests in Los Angeles included people accused of drug trafficking, assault, cruelty to children, domestic violence, robbery and the smuggling of illegal immigrants.
The fact that the protests broke out because the demonstrators didn't want illegal immigrants with criminal records to be arrested or deported is sad and pathetic.
Opinion newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter on conservative values, family and religion from columnist Nicole Russell. Get it delivered to your inbox.
America is a melting pot, and our arms should be open to people who want to come to this land to live a better life. But we must follow a legal process for immigrants to enter and stay in the United States.
But progressive states like California and Democratic leaders like Newsom and former President Joe Biden have ignored our immigration laws. They sent a clear message to people all over the world that the border was open, and millions took advantage of that fact to enter our country illegally.
Now, it is Trump who must enforce the law and restore order, whether Gov. Newsom and the violent protesters in the streets of Los Angeles like it or not.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.
You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LA protests go too far. Trump's right to send National Guard | Opinion
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