Los Angeles Riots: Battle for America’s Future
Published in Rzeczpospolita
(Poland) on 9 June 2025
by Jędrzej Bielecki (link to original)
Clashes in the second-largest U.S. city will determine the success of Donald Trump’s deportation of undocumented immigrants and his violation of the U.S. Constitution.
On Monday, the fourth day of clashes between law enforcement and mostly Latino protesters escalated in downtown Los Angeles. Near the city hall, protesters managed to block Interstate 101, one of the country’s most important routes. Footage of stones and bricks being thrown at police cars has gone viral worldwide. Officers responded on the streets by firing rubber bullets or stun grenades.
But clashes have also intensified on social media between President Donald Trump and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, along with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, also a Democrat.
"A once great American city, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals," Trump wrote on social media, accusing Newsom of failing to stand up to the task and doing a "tragic job." The governor responded that the president wants to violate California's jurisdiction, while Bass urged residents not to give Trump what he wants.
At the Current Rate, the Deportation of Undocumented Immigrants Would Take 30 Years
Over the weekend, Trump deployed the National Guard to deal with the protesters. The last time a president took such action against state authorities was exactly 60 years ago. Lyndon Johnson did it for a good cause — to defend civil rights protesters in Alabama fighting for the equal rights of the state’s Black residents. The National Guard is normally under the authority of individual states, not the White House.
Trump, however, used a rarely used provision to allow the White House to send armed forces in the event of a foreign invasion. The “invasion” is seemingly the presence of about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. But such an interpretation is highly questionable not only because a similar number of undocumented foreigners have been living in America for decades, but also because they have been tolerated by Washington as a source of cheap labor for businesses. Still, Trump warned that he could go even further and send a unit of the armed forces, the Marines, against the demonstrators.
This battle will determine whether Trump will deliver on perhaps the most important promise he made to Americans in last November's election: curbing illegal immigration. According to CBS, in the period from his taking power on Jan. 20 up to last week, the president has managed to deport only 100,000 people. At this rate, it would take at least 30 years for all undocumented immigrants to be removed from the U.S. At Trump’s urging, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, himself a descendant of Jewish immigrants from Poland, who oversees this operation, is resorting to increasingly radical measures, including street and workplace roundups of potential deportation targets. This is what caused the clashes in Los Angeles.
But deportations are taking place at a snail's pace because Democratic-led states like California refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Although the White House intends to increase the number of deportees to at least 3,000 per day, for now, the pace is at least three times slower. The clashes in Los Angeles also put the future of America’s political system at stake. The dispute is part of the president's broader attempt to expand his power. This happened, for example, with trade policy, which, according to the Constitution, is under congressional authority. In this confrontation, however, Trump can ultimately count on the Supreme Court, where six of the nine justices hold conservative views.
A Majority of California Residents Believe the State Would Be Better Off if It Were Independent
Yet California is not going to yield to the president easily. It has developed a particularly strong identity based not only on a liberal worldview, but also on the very strong presence of Spanish-speaking culture. The state, whose economy ($4 trillion) is comparable to Germany's, was ceded by Mexico in 1848; as many as 40% of its residents are Latinos, mostly Mexicans.
According to a survey conducted by the Independence California Institute in San Diego, as many as 60% of Californians felt their state would fare better if it broke free and became independent in the next 10 years. An independence activist from Fresno, Marcus Evans, has filed a petition to hold a referendum on the issue in conjunction with the 2028 presidential election. This will happen if he manages to collect 545,000 signatures by July 25. Nevertheless, two-thirds of the members of Congress and three-quarters of the rest of the U.S. states would have to approve the independence of California, which today seems completely unrealistic.
But much sooner — as early as the midterm elections to Congress next year — the Republicans could lose their majority if Latinos begin to stand in solidarity with their compatriots who live in the U.S. illegally. In 2024, as many as 42% of them voted for Trump. Fifty-three million people residing in the U.S. were born outside the country — that’s 15% of the entire population. Hispanics constitute the largest minority group in the U.S., with a population of over 70 million.
On Monday, the fourth day of clashes between law enforcement and mostly Latino protesters escalated in downtown Los Angeles. Near the city hall, protesters managed to block Interstate 101, one of the country’s most important routes. Footage of stones and bricks being thrown at police cars has gone viral worldwide. Officers responded on the streets by firing rubber bullets or stun grenades.
But clashes have also intensified on social media between President Donald Trump and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, along with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, also a Democrat.
"A once great American city, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals," Trump wrote on social media, accusing Newsom of failing to stand up to the task and doing a "tragic job." The governor responded that the president wants to violate California's jurisdiction, while Bass urged residents not to give Trump what he wants.
At the Current Rate, the Deportation of Undocumented Immigrants Would Take 30 Years
Over the weekend, Trump deployed the National Guard to deal with the protesters. The last time a president took such action against state authorities was exactly 60 years ago. Lyndon Johnson did it for a good cause — to defend civil rights protesters in Alabama fighting for the equal rights of the state’s Black residents. The National Guard is normally under the authority of individual states, not the White House.
Trump, however, used a rarely used provision to allow the White House to send armed forces in the event of a foreign invasion. The “invasion” is seemingly the presence of about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. But such an interpretation is highly questionable not only because a similar number of undocumented foreigners have been living in America for decades, but also because they have been tolerated by Washington as a source of cheap labor for businesses. Still, Trump warned that he could go even further and send a unit of the armed forces, the Marines, against the demonstrators.
This battle will determine whether Trump will deliver on perhaps the most important promise he made to Americans in last November's election: curbing illegal immigration. According to CBS, in the period from his taking power on Jan. 20 up to last week, the president has managed to deport only 100,000 people. At this rate, it would take at least 30 years for all undocumented immigrants to be removed from the U.S. At Trump’s urging, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, himself a descendant of Jewish immigrants from Poland, who oversees this operation, is resorting to increasingly radical measures, including street and workplace roundups of potential deportation targets. This is what caused the clashes in Los Angeles.
But deportations are taking place at a snail's pace because Democratic-led states like California refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Although the White House intends to increase the number of deportees to at least 3,000 per day, for now, the pace is at least three times slower. The clashes in Los Angeles also put the future of America’s political system at stake. The dispute is part of the president's broader attempt to expand his power. This happened, for example, with trade policy, which, according to the Constitution, is under congressional authority. In this confrontation, however, Trump can ultimately count on the Supreme Court, where six of the nine justices hold conservative views.
A Majority of California Residents Believe the State Would Be Better Off if It Were Independent
Yet California is not going to yield to the president easily. It has developed a particularly strong identity based not only on a liberal worldview, but also on the very strong presence of Spanish-speaking culture. The state, whose economy ($4 trillion) is comparable to Germany's, was ceded by Mexico in 1848; as many as 40% of its residents are Latinos, mostly Mexicans.
According to a survey conducted by the Independence California Institute in San Diego, as many as 60% of Californians felt their state would fare better if it broke free and became independent in the next 10 years. An independence activist from Fresno, Marcus Evans, has filed a petition to hold a referendum on the issue in conjunction with the 2028 presidential election. This will happen if he manages to collect 545,000 signatures by July 25. Nevertheless, two-thirds of the members of Congress and three-quarters of the rest of the U.S. states would have to approve the independence of California, which today seems completely unrealistic.
But much sooner — as early as the midterm elections to Congress next year — the Republicans could lose their majority if Latinos begin to stand in solidarity with their compatriots who live in the U.S. illegally. In 2024, as many as 42% of them voted for Trump. Fifty-three million people residing in the U.S. were born outside the country — that’s 15% of the entire population. Hispanics constitute the largest minority group in the U.S., with a population of over 70 million.
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