As rioters have been tearing apart the once-great city of Los Angeles, Democrats had a golden opportunity to disavow the dangerous radicalism that doomed them in November. As far-left thugs set cars on fire, assaulted police, and vandalized public and private property, Democrats had a chance to do the right thing. They could have condemned the violence, reaffirmed support for law enforcement, and chosen the side of the American people.
Instead, they chose to double down and tried to deceive. And they’re doing it because it’s the only card they have left to play.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) dismissed the riots in L.A. as “pretty small,” and even called for more protests, saying “we have to be on the streets.” Isra Hirsi, daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), publicly called for “death to the colonial empire…from LA to Rafah.” Rep. Maxine Watters (D-CA) made a show out of being refused entry to an ICE facility in the besieged city, then tried to make the whole thing about race.
As rioters waved Mexican flags and burned American flags, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) blamed President Trump. As rioters pelted police cars with rocks, Los Angeles’ Democrat Mayor Karen Bass justified the rioters by saying that they were acting out of “fear.” As the streets of one of America’s largest cities turned into a warzone, disgraced former Vice President Kamala Harris falsely claimed that the protests have been “overwhelmingly peaceful.”
A protester waves the Mexican flag beside the wreckage of a burnt car sprayed with graffiti against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 7, 2025 in Los Angeles. (RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images)
A protester holds a Mexican flag and masked head of Donald Trump while standing in front of vandalized a Waymo car during an anti-ICE protest on June 9, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Nick Ut/Getty Images)
Many Americans are probably scratching their heads wondering why the Democrats would, once again, double down on violent, anti-American riots. It shouldn’t surprise anyone. The simplest answer is often correct. In this situation it’s simply because they have no other message. Their only option is to embrace the insanity of their supporters in the streets, unified by the latest outrage of the day, and find a way to blame President Trump as they have for a decade now.
These are the actions and rhetoric of a movement that is desperate, leaderless, and lacks a clear message after being resoundingly rejected in November. The only firm supporters that the Democratic Party has left are the masked criminals assaulting police and destroying cities. The party as it exists today has no choice but to call on these low-rent criminals of opportunity to assault police over hardened criminals from other countries.
That is precisely why President Trump’s mass deportation agenda is so devastating to the Left. Hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens have been arrested or removed, and one million more have self-deported as enforcement tightens. ICE continues to break records with the numbers of daily arrests. And to make matters more embarrassing for the open borders crowd, the deportation agenda is still popular — even with legal immigrants.
The Democratic Party has made it crystal clear that, when faced with the choice of supporting American citizens or supporting illegal aliens, they will choose the illegals every single time. The Democrats have chosen to have their main constituency: The violent protestors and illegal aliens who wave Mexican flags in the street, not American flags. If this crop of prospective voters were to be deported, the party could very well be condemned to its current minority status for many election cycles to come.
This legislation would provide over $50 billion in funding to secure President Trump’s immigration agenda. It would allow for Customs and Border Protection to improve their technology. It would fund the completion of the border wall. And, most crucially, it would allow ICE to hire 10,000 new agents. With these funds and resources, we could see deportation numbers surpass one million every year.
The Democrats who still refuse to condemn these riots likely also oppose this historic legislation at least in part because they do not want to deport the millions of the potential voters they spent the last four years allowing to illegally enter into our country. They turned a blind eye to what can only be described as an invasion of illegal aliens flowing into our country, and to this day remain either too embarrassed to admit or simply disinterested to acknowledge their role in the illegal immigration crisis that defined the Biden Administration.
Now, with the Democrat Party’s imported base of potential voters facing removal all the rallying and protesting in the world won’t be enough to guarantee them victory in future elections. They are afraid and that is why they are now lashing out in Los Angeles.
The One Big Beautiful Bill was already a crucial piece of legislation at face value. But now, in response to these latest destructive riots, it is all the more imperative that the Senate passes this bill so President Trump can sign it into law. It will keep Americans safe, and it will finally break the back of the Democrats’ far-left, anti-American coalition once and for all.
If the 53 Senate Republicans don’t want to see another “summer of love” in which American cities are terrorized by mobs of illegal aliens, then they have only one course of action: Pass the Big Beautiful Bill, and secure funding for mass deportations.
Pat Harrigan represents North Carolina’s 10th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.
