The destructive anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles continue – and the state’s Democratic leaders are doubling down on their support. Democrats accuse Trump of overstepping his authority by using the National Guard to protect California – but America has a long history of “sending in the troops.” And, California taxpayers might be unknowingly funding the L.A. protests. We speak to a woman who says she has the receipts.
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California Leaders Fiddle As L.A. Burns
Topline: Pockets of Los Angeles are still under siege by anti-ICE rioters — and now the Marines are stepping in.
After a weekend of riots, on Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump deployed hundreds of Marines expected to protect federal personnel and property. They will join the 2,000 National Guardsmen who’ve already been activated.
The move came as the unrest entered its fourth day. The chaos continued over the last 24 hours with rioters downtown shutting down a highway, setting self-driving autotaxis on fire, and lobbing bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police. In one incident, rioters smashed out the windows at LAPD headquarters. In another, a number of businesses, including a Jordan sneaker store, were broken into and looted. Dozens of arrests have been made, but violent crowds continued to form overnight, vowing to riot until federal agents cease their deportation raids.
Trump has thus far refused to back down. The president said on Truth Social that he would “deal with the violent, instigated riots in California” and that without his deployment of the National Guard, “Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”
However, Republicans have accused many California Democrats of offering tacit support to the rioters while blaming President Trump for the violence:
Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X, “Donald Trump is putting fuel on this fire. Commandeering a state’s National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral,” and the governor has announced plans to sue the administration for deploying California’s National Guard without permission. In an interview with MSNBC, Newsom challenged Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, to arrest him. “Come after me. Arrest me. Let’s just get it over with, tough guy. I don’t give a damn.”
(For his part, Trump responded Monday by saying, “I would [arrest him] if I were Tom. Gavin likes the publicity.”)
Senator Alex Padilla characterized the protests as “peaceful” and “passionate”. “The vast majority of protesters and demonstrators are peaceful. … When you come into a community like Los Angeles, the way the Trump administration has, you need to expect to be countered with people who are passionate about defending fundamental rights.”
California Congresswoman Maxine Waters falsely claimed on CNN that there has been “no violence,” and later taunted members of the National Guard, saying, “What are you gonna do, shoot some kids? You gonna shoot an elected official? If you shoot me, you better shoot straight. I don’t know why you’re in my city … this is Trump.”
The White House has argued these riots are proving their point — that illegal aliens are wreaking havoc on American cities.
National Guard Legal Dispute
Topline: President Trump dispatched National Guard troops to Los Angeles this weekend despite the protests of local Democrat leaders. While disputes over National Guard deployments are unusual, they aren’t entirely unprecedented.
The federal government is typically barred from deploying military resources for law enforcement purposes in the United States – with one exception, found in the Insurrection Act, which says that the military can be deployed to enforce the law or quell rebellion. Constitutionally, its use relies on Congress’s authority to “provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.”
The last time the National Guard was called on to quell riots was, coincidentally, also in Los Angeles, when President George H. W. Bush called them in to crack down on the Rodney King riots. One big difference between 1992 and today is that Bush had the backing of California’s governor and the mayor of L.A. Trump has neither, and that has been a focus of criticism.
California filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Monday, arguing that Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard violated constitutional procedure and the state’s sovereignty.
“[Trump’s order] abused the federal government’s authority and violated the 10th Amendment and federal law,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “As a result, I, in partnership with Governor Gavin Newsom, [am] suing President Trump and asking the court to set aside the president’s unlawful action federalizing the California National Guard.”
Republicans have largely supported the president’s actions and condemned the ongoing unrest.
“I spent 20 years in the military,” Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-TX) told CBS on “Face The Nation.” “I fought in two wars. I fought to give people the freedom to protest whatever the hell they want to. But what we’re seeing in L.A. are not advocates. We’re seeing anarchists, and the President of the United States should absolutely put down the mob as soon as possible.”
Activists Create Anti-ICE Infrastructure
Topline: The anti-ICE protests sweeping through the Los Angeles area are being promoted and organized by left-wing activist groups, including a prominent nonprofit that receives tens of millions of taxpayer dollars from California.
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, has been identified as one of the key financial backers of the ongoing anti-ICE protests. Laura Powell, civil liberties attorney and founder of Californians for Good Governance, told The Daily Wire that CHIRLA received $34 million from the state government in 2023, primarily from the California Social Services Department.
“There’s a rapid response network that was set up that is a coalition of various nonprofits, but [CHIRLA] seem[s] to be the central one because it’s their phone number that’s used as this hotline,” Powell said. “People on the street can call in to report when ICE is in the area and then they can deploy people to go to that area …and in some cases interfere with the officer’s work.”
In addition to tens of millions of dollars from the state government, CHIRLA received $450,000 from the Department of Homeland Security with the assistance of L.A. Democratic Mayor Karen Bass.
An investigation by Californians for Good Governance has also uncovered deep ties between CHIRLA and California’s Democratic establishment.
“Mayor Bass of Los Angeles is very connected to them. They’ve supported her. She’s bragged about helping them get federal funding in the past,” Powell told The Daily Wire. “They endorsed Kamala Harris, of course, Gavin Newsom, Adam Schiff. … They can’t directly endorse candidates because they’re a 501(c)(3), but they have a 501(c)(4) that they use for those candidate endorsements. They also sponsor a lot of legislation at the state level.”