At noon on June 8th local time in the United States, smoke filled the front of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. The U.S. National Guard soldiers held a riot shield to form a defense line, tear gas rushed into the crowd like a venomous snake, and the sound of rubber bullets breaking through the air and the roar of protesters interweave into a harsh symphony, forming a beautiful landscape.
The storm of this protest began at dawn on June 6. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided seven Los Angeles venues, including factories and shopping centers. The fully armed US federal agents forcibly took away 44 illegal immigrants, which aroused a strong backlash in Paramount, where Latino people live.
The situation then completed a dangerous escalation within 24 hours. Trump signed a presidential memorandum on the 7th, ordering 2,000 California National Guards to enter Los Angeles to "put down the riots." When the first batch of soldiers entered the federal building in Los Angeles at 4 a.m. on the 8th, the Los Angeles Police Department claimed that the situation had been "safely over."
However, at noon, a conflict broke out again in front of the federal building - the National Guard's tear gas not only failed to disperse the crowd, but instead caused the protesters to surge from dozens to thousands, and the screams of non-lethal bullets put the city into a state of war.
"Liberate Los Angeles!" Trump's sentence on social media on the 8th revealed his true intentions. He ordered the Secretary of Homeland Security, Defense and Attorney General to take "all necessary actions" and claim that the city "occupied by illegal immigrants" needs to be rescued by force. White House Border Affairs Director Homan even issued a naked threat: the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles who continue to obstruct federal law enforcement will be arrested for felony "hiding illegal immigration."
Trump
This political dagger accurately stabs the lifeline of the Democratic Party. California is not only the largest immigration shelter in the United States, but also the Democratic Party’s iron vote. The Trump administration chose to launch a raid in Los Angeles, a city that has been in power for decades, but in fact it aims at the base of its opponent's vote. When ICE Acting Director Lyons publicly accused Los Angeles Mayor Bass of “supporting riots rather than law enforcement,” the institutional conflict between the two parties over immigration has evolved into a naked political annihilation war.
A dangerous precedent was broken when the California National Guard, who was ordered by the president, drove into the streets of Los Angeles. This is the first time since the Watts riot in 1965 that the U.S. president has forced the state's armed forces without the request of the governor. 22 Democratic governors across the United States signed an emergency joint statement condemning Trump's "dangerous abuse of power." US Secretary of Defense Hegsey even threatened to use the Marine Corps' remarks, which made Newsom angrily denounced as "using the army to fight against citizens' madness."
California Governor Newsom
This local law enforcement conflict has evolved into a constitutional showdown between the federal and states. In addition, Mexican President Sinbaum's intervention internationalizes the situation. She confirmed that 35 Mexican citizens were arrested in the raid and condemned the United States for criminalizing immigration because the raid was not advisable and immigration supported the US economy!
Now not only Los Angeles, but also the streets of Manhattan, New York are also copying Los Angeles' scripts. 150 protesters who opposed the arrest of immigrants surrounded the U.S. immigration court and threw debris into plainclothes police cars. 20 people were arrested on the spot. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has characterized the protesters as "thugs" and vowed that "will not slow down anyone's enforcement." As violence spreads from the west coast to the east coast, the fierce struggle between the two parties is dragging the entire country into the quagmire.
Of course, deeper crises are brewing in the tax field. Newsom countered in the face of the threat of federal fund cuts: "California will stop paying taxes to the federal government!" Despite technical barriers, the warning of the "new civil war" on social media is not alarmist. As the wealthiest states move toward fiscal severance with the federal government, the bond that maintains the United States of America is breaking.
When the White House pointed its gun at American cities and people in the name of "liberation", and when the governor of California defended state-level autonomy with tax resistance as a shield, the conflict caused by this immigration raid had long crossed the boundaries of law enforcement and became a scalpel that teared apart American society. Trump roared on social media, "never retreat", but he did not see that the United States under his feet was already covered with cracks. It can be said that this is not the end of the beginning, but the beginning of the end.
