We’ve talked a lot about immigration in the past year. It was one of the issues that helped determine the 2024 election, but it turns out that most Americans aren’t okay with ICE snatching people from their jobs, churches, or schools.
So when immigration officers began raiding businesses in Los Angeles, people were upset. These are their friends, family, and neighbors.
“Why were there raids?” LA Mayor Karen Bass asked. “We had been told that Trump was going to go after violent criminals. It wasn’t a drug den; it was a Home Depot.”
The full details are still emerging about exactly how many protesters there are and what small fraction escalated the situation. But we do know that the protests are relatively small and isolated — 100,000 people marched in LA’s annual Pride Parade this weekend, for example, with no delays or complications.
And more importantly, we know that the National Guard was not required. The last time a president invoked the Insurrection Act like this against a state’s wishes was in 1965 — President Johnson called in the National Guard to protect protestors from local police during the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
Amidst all of the coverage you read this week about protests and authoritarianism, remember what it is that LA is protesting: the arrests of everyday people who just wanted to go to work and come home to their families.
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