Violence broke out in Los Angeles over the weekend in protest of federal immigration raids. The response highlights the need for a more functional American immigration policy.

The trouble started Friday near Los Angeles, The Wall Street Journal reported, “when residents reacted to federal agents engaged in what appeared to be an immigration enforcement operation.” The Department of Homeland Security reported that about 800 protesters then surrounded a federal law enforcement building. On Saturday, the unrest spread, with demonstrators obstructing traffic on highways. Some protesters took aggressive action toward police.

Democrats largely responded by blaming President Donald Trump and dragging out the canard that the protesters were “mostly peaceful.” But while the violence may have been confined to small areas, it was dangerous and well-documented. The Los Angeles Times reported that, “Some businesses were vandalized and burglarized overnight downtown, concluding hours of unrest that saw Waymo cars burned, police cruisers crushed with rocks and electric scooters and various forms of vandalism.”

Trump sent in the National Guard on Sunday. California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom protested mightily, arguing the president had exacerbated tensions. But he and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could have saved themselves a lot of complaining had they managed to get a handle on the situation when the violence began. Trump’s move came well after pockets of the city were out of control.

Democrats are free to oppose the White House’s immigration agenda, and protesters have a right to express themselves in an orderly fashion. But once again, party leaders — including Newsom — seemed more intent on attacking Trump than on forcefully expressing their opposition to those who would violently attempt to stop immigration officials from doing their jobs.

Trump has a mandate from the voters to enforce immigration law. He is tasked with cleaning up the mess that former President Joe Biden created when he sought to gain favor with his party’s open-borders crowd by refusing to stop a deluge of illegal migration that swamped the nation during the first three years of his term. More than 7 million people entered the country without authorization.

Since Trump took office in January, the White House has successfully slowed the influx to a trickle. But many Democrats oppose aggressive enforcement efforts even against those who entered the United States illegally and then committed other crimes. They’d be better off attempting to reach a compromise with Republicans that balances the value of legal immigrants and those who have made productive contributions to the economy with the importance of border security and national sovereignty.

— From Tribune News Service