ICE bad, illegals rioting good. You can bet that’s Democrats’ calculation. Riots have been underway in Los Angeles. Mask-wearing provocateurs are waving Mexican flags. LA is their Mount Suribachi. A lot of people say that if illegals love Mexico so much, then go back home. But they miss the point. What’s happening in LA is about conquest.
Hoisting Mexican flags on U.S. soil stakes a claim. This real estate is ours, declare the troublemakers, among whom are surely homegrown leftist agitators. LA, in part, smells like a George Floyd riots redo. In this instance, federal agents, acting on behalf of American citizens, are being fought. The feds tucking tail is the aim. Meanwhile, Democrats are quiet. Well, not exactly quiet, but there is no full-throated condemnation of the punks and agitators inflicting mayhem on law enforcement and innocent Angelenos. We hear weasel words instead.
Gavin Newsom condemns the violence and calls for peaceful protests, while thugs burn cars, pelt police with stones, and loot stores. Newsom criticizes Trump for deploying National Guard units to restore order.
LA mayor Karen Bass’ moral outrage is reserved for the ICE raids. ICE is instigating “terror in our communities,” says Bass, who was junketing in Africa earlier in the year as the Palisades burned. Violence needs to be met with (wait for it)… peaceful responses. Translated: law enforcement and the National Guard need to scram.
Says wine-tippling Kamala Harris, in pure Orwellian fashion, Trump’s deployment of National Guard units is a “dangerous escalation and cruel.”
U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez visited a detention center. He deplored the conditions. Detainees, claimed the big-hearted congressman, lack food, water, and medicine. A bogus allegation but nifty propaganda.
LA County supervisor Janice Hahn came out for peaceful protests without condemning the lawbreakers and their violence.
Maybe these California Democrats would have preferred Trump deploying crisis counselors? A little kumbaya goes a long way, right?
Democrats always sing from the same song sheet. A unified front is a leftist tactic that Democrats picked up. They’re all calling for peaceful protests (after the fact) and deploring the National Guard’s deployment. With mobs attacking ICE agents, with rioters looting and damaging property, with LA citizens being terrorized, the only response is a show of force. If the bad guys don’t back down, then force is the recourse. And don’t hesitate to deploy more National Guard units if warranted.
We know what the Democrats’ prescription is for stopping the street violence. Just call off the ICE raids, Mr. President. Leave illegal immigrants alone. (Wink, wink), the riots will cease.
Never mind that the Trump administration’s priority is removing the worst criminals among “undocumented immigrants.” In the early going, border czar Tom Homan and Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem have had striking success in locating and deporting Tren de Aragua desperados, as well as MS-13 gangbangers. Who do these cold-blooded gangsters prey on first? Innocents in Latino communities. Surely, Democrats favor Trump administration initiatives to root out the worst criminal elements in communities they say they champion?
The open secret is that Democrats need lots of illegal aliens. Replenishing their constituencies with the undocumented is critical for political success. What they fear is further ICE roundups leading to deportations of ever larger numbers of illegals. Their fear isn’t without basis. Tom Homan has commented that greater numbers of apprehensions are required. For Democrats, depleting illegals’ populations and sealing the southern border is a recipe for political disaster.
Democrats’ principal fear is the next U.S. census. Every ten years, national census counts matter in terms of federal dollars allocated, U.S. House representation, and in allocation of electoral votes by state. If the 2030 census shifts House seats to red states, it’ll mean shifting Electoral College votes. Blue states will pay dearly. An apt example is California, Ground Zero for the current battles with ICE.
Reported the Brennan Center, December 20, 2024:
Meanwhile, California and New York, which have seen significant population outflows this decade, are projected to lose four [California] and two districts respectively. For California, this would be only the second time in its history it has lost representation (the first was this decade when the Golden State lost one seat).
Red states gains would cause Democrats to struggle to win the U.S. House and the presidency. Fewer federal dollars crimps Democrats’ ability to pay off voters. 
Retaining and boosting illegal populations are imperative for California and every blue state on the map. And, yes, illegals were counted in 2020, ensuring that Democrat losses were minimized.
Pew Research, which keeps tabs on the Census Bureau’s “undocumented migrant” counts, estimated that 10.5 million illegals were added in the 2020 census count. Pew reports that as of 2022, that number had climbed to 11 million. That’s still below the peak -- 12.2 million in 2007 -- when George W. Bush was in the White House. Surprisingly, Barack Obama earned the monicker “Deporter-in-Chief” for his record of booting illegals. With Biden’s election, Democrats decided not to make that mistake again.
Nonetheless, we await census estimates since 2022. Given the high volume of illegal entrants from 2023 to the end of Biden’s term, expect those numbers to reach or surpass the Bush presidency high.
The Trump administration, congressional Republicans, and conservative groups are using executive orders, legislation, and litigation to contest including illegals in the 2030 census. If Republicans succeed, Democrats will find themselves in a world of hurt.
But Democrats do have a window to change the dynamic in their favor. In 2028, let’s say Andy Beshears or Roy Cooper or Gavin Newsom is elected president. Whoever the Democrat, he’ll declare a blanket amnesty and sign an executive order -- or legislation, if Democrats run Congress -- granting quick paths to citizenship. It’ll be done in the name of community and compassion and harmony. Not only will the millions of illegals among us benefit, but the many millions to come. And Democrats will have done everything possible to get the 2030 census to again count illegals.
The U.S.-Mexican border, shut tight by Donald Trump, will reopen. Got to keep the pipeline flowing. Yes, sirree, America will be transformed and you’ll like it. If you don’t, tough luck, because Democrats will possess the authority backed by millions of immigrantes.
As critical as the 2024 election was, the 2028 presidential contest will be of complimentary consequence. (No less critical, the 2026 midterms need Republican victories to hold the House.) Failure to elect J.D. Vance president -- or, if not Vance, any worthy successor to Trump -- means the Trump administration’s hard-won gains will be lost. The 2030s, which MAGA Republicans should dominate, may, at best, be a decade’s worth of contested ground. At worst, Democrats, boosted by illegal immigrant populations and a reopened border, could prevail.
The LA riots underway are a battlefront in a larger war. Illegals are declaring that American turf is theirs, and Democrats tacitly support the claim. An aim is to de-Americanize America. That alone may satisfy those who hate the stars and stripes, but for grasping Democrats, the goal is, and forever shall be, power -- its acquisition, increase, and retention. The Mexican flags waving over LA streets are mostly about that.
J. Robert Smith can be found at X. His handle is @JRobertSmith1. At Gab, @JRobertSmith. He blogs occasionally at Flyover.
Image: AT via Magic Studio