Border lawlessness fueled California riots, immigration expert warns

California has become the epicenter of the immigration debate under the Trump administration, which is leading to questions about what cultivated the protests and riots that happened in the area in June and continue to pop up around the country.

Heather Mac Donald, a Manhattan Institute fellow and author of “When Race Trumps Merit,” said she believes that the border crisis under the Biden administration paved the way for civil unrest.

“It shows that lawlessness in one area breeds lawlessness in another. We’ve had an absolutely lawless situation going on with regards to the border. We’ve had California and Los Angeles tolerate criminal lawlessness, and so it’s not surprising that activists and protesters and immigrant rights activists felt that they were entitled to wreak absolute chaos and havoc in the streets,” Mac Donald said in the wake of riots in Los Angeles last month.

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Mac Donald added that the large amount of immigration could lead to cultural assimilation woes.

“This is nothing new, but Americans have turned their eyes away and have bought into the narrative that the more diversity, the better, the more demographic change, the better,” she said. 

Mac Donald added that a cap on the number of people allowed to come into the United States could be beneficial in the long term.

“Well, for assimilation, a cap would definitely be necessary. We saw that with the long decades after maximal immigration at the turn of the century, when we did halt immigration. And that allowed the assimilation to go on, that it did. With nonstop immigration coming in, you’re running a losing race to assimilate. So that would absolutely be ideal.”

“We should reform the agriculture sector. You know, we have temporary worker programs for that, and whether we want to carve out any exceptions to a moratorium for very, very high-skilled workers, that is definitely worth considering. But certainly for chain migration, the bringing in of remote family members, that should be ended now until we are confident that we are creating Americans and not people who will get out in riots and wave flags of non-American countries,” Mac Donald continued.

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When it comes to the overall stance of the American population on immigration, she explained that mass deportations, which the Trump administration has said they are working toward while highlighting those with criminal convictions and charges, could be the best path forward in the short-term aftermath of the border crisis.

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“We should not make the distinction between criminal illegal aliens, who are legitimately deported and those who have committed lawbreaking on entry and by staying here but have not got a criminal record. The received wisdom is it’s OK to deport the first, but the second, we shouldn’t even make them fearful of deportation, that that’s cruel,” she said. “I think they’re all legitimately eligible for deportation. Nevertheless, I’m not sure that the American people have a stomach for that degree of immigration enforcement.“

In addition to ICE and Border Patrol arrests and busts, the Department of Homeland Security has encouraged self-deportation through the CBP Home app, which was swapped from the CBP One app people used to request asylum under President Joe Biden. DHS is offering $1,000, travel out of the U.S., as well as scrapping fees and a chance to return to the country legally as part of the deal.

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In Los Angeles, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass has been a significant voice of opposition to federal immigration sweeps, at one point saying ICE should “go home.”

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“We are a proud city of immigrants, and with the Trump Administration signaling that they will ratchet up their chaotic approach, I’m making sure we deploy every resource and tool available within the City to ensure that we are supporting immigrant communities,” Bass said recently, according to a news release. 

When it comes to potential civil unrest in other cities, Mac Donald says it could happen.

“I think there will be civil unrest in other cities, because it was justified, it was trivialized by our elected leaders as, ‘Oh, we’ve got the situation under control,’” she said.