Democrats Make Stephen Miller's Day

Wall Street Journal

5 hours ago

Will Democrats ever learn a political lesson on immigration and crime? It doesn't appear so judging from their response to the migrant protests in Los Angeles that turned violent on Sunday night. Chaos on the streets will increase public support for a hard-line restrictionist agenda.
Protests against Mr. Trump's immigration raids escalated Sunday evening as activists torched cars, looted businesses and occupied a major freeway. Law enforcement and immigration officers were pelted with rocks and fireworks. Activists also smashed concrete bollards outside federal buildings where they were protesting, using chunks as weapons.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's response on Monday? Sue Mr. Trump over his Saturday order deploying the California National Guard to Los Angeles to protect federal property and officers. The Governor claimed that calling in troops was 'inflammatory.' But recent history suggests that protesters don't need a provocation to turn violent.
Recall how the antifa crowd and other extremists hijacked protests after George Floyd's death in 2020. Ditto anti-Israel protests at the University of California, Los Angeles, that turned bloody. After the Dodgers' World Series victory last autumn, revelers looted businesses, torched city buses and hurled fireworks at police officers who tried to bring them under control.
The current chaos isn't a surprise in a city and state that too often tolerate lawlessness. Still, it wasn't clear early Sunday whether deploying troops was necessary or would be constructive. But asked late Sunday if the National Guard were needed, L.A. police chief Jim McDonnell responded: 'Well, looking at tonight, this thing has gotten out of control.'
All of this will please Stephen Miller, the White House deportation czar, who is eager for such a confrontation with a 'sanctuary city.' Now Democrats are playing into his hands by soft-pedaling the violence. Mr. Newsom and the city's Democratic leaders could have tried to douse the flames by denouncing the violence and stressing that lawbreakers will be arrested.
Instead, they're blaming Mr. Trump for their own failure to maintain order. As Mr. Newsom tweeted: '1) Local law enforcement didn't need help. 2) Trump sent troops anyway—to manufacture chaos and violence. 3) Trump succeeded. 4) Now things are destabilized and we need to send in more law enforcement just to clean up Trump's mess.'
That explanation may resound in Mr. Newsom's liberal echo chamber, but it won't sit well with most Americans who have little patience for disorder. Mr. Trump is already escalating by sending in 500 Marines, ostensibly to protect federal buildings.
Mr. Newsom said the President's calling in the National Guard is an 'unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,' which is transparent hyperbole. The rarely used law Mr. Trump invoked allows such a deployment when 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' Rioters are certainly rebelling against the authority of immigration enforcement.
The airwaves and social media are saturated with footage of protesters waving Mexican flags atop burning cars, carrying signs claiming California is 'Stolen land' and chanting 'We don't want ICE or police!' Mr. Newsom really is living in La La Land if he thinks Americans will side with such radicals over Mr. Trump.
Mr. Newsom and his Democratic friends could show sympathy for law-abiding immigrants ensnared in the raids while also condemning the violence. It is in their own interest to do so since continuing violence will boost public support for Mr. Miller's project to deport every illegal migrant and end legal immigration too. Maybe one of these days Democrats will learn that their automatic, unqualified anti-Trump 'resistance' helps him.