Opinion In Los Angeles, Trump is escalating a crisis of his own making

Los Angeles, in America’s largest blue state where over one-third of the population is born outside the country, is no stranger to protest. During the 2006 immigration reform demonstrations, more than 500,000 people marched in LA alone. In 1992, violent unrest erupted after a jury acquitted four LAPD officers charged with using excessive force against Rodney King, an African American man. The Watts Riots of 1965 were similarly rooted in longstanding racism and poverty faced by African Americans. The city’s residents have once again taken to the streets — this time in response to a wave of brutal crackdowns on immigrant communities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In response to the protests, President Donald Trump initially deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops to the city. On Monday, he authorised an additional 2,000 troops, along with 700 Marines mobilised by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Trump invoked Title 10 of the US Code, which permits the President to federalise National Guard units if the country is invaded, if there is a “rebellion or danger of rebellion”, or if the President is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the US”. There is, however, little evidence of such an emergency. By bypassing California’s Governor Gavin Newsom, Trump’s move constitutes an unprecedented federal overreach. The friction between Trump and Newsom is well known — earlier this year, when California sought federal assistance during the devastating wildfires, the President turned it into a political standoff. Now, California has sued the Trump administration over what it calls the unlawful deployment of the National Guard.

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Trump’s claims — LA “has been invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals”, and is being overwhelmed by “violent, insurrectionist mobs” — are not supported by facts. The US is currently seeing the lowest levels of undocumented border crossings in decades, and violent crime has declined nationwide, including in California and LA. To project himself as tough on immigration, Trump is escalating a crisis of his own making. ICE has reportedly been given a daily arrest quota of 3,000 — a figure with no clear justification. This is not the first time Trump has resorted to the National Guard: In 2020, he deployed troops against demonstrators during the George Floyd protests in Washington, DC. Now, Trump hasn’t ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act, which would provide him unchecked emergency powers. The US President would do well to douse the fire instead of stoking it.