By Douglas V. Gibbs
As we have seen a number of times in history, the streets of Los Angeles are on fire and in chaos. What we are witnessing on the streets of Los Angeles is not a protest. It is not a case of civil disobedience. It was definitely not a case of constitutionally protected free speech. What we are witnessing with the ICE Riots in Los Angeles this weekend is a full-blown, left-wing, anti-American riot – an insurrection disguised as activism.
The mainstream media and progressive commie Democrats who claim they love the Constitution when they think it suits their purposes have been calling the ICE Riots “peaceful demonstrations” and “a cry for justice.” The facts tell a different story.
Buildings have been burned. Vehicles set aflame. Federal officers assaulted. Immigration enforcement disrupted. And worst of all, those organizing and fueling the chaos are openly and proudly doing so under the false pretense that Los Angeles is a “sanctuary city,” immune from federal immigration law.
There is no constitutional basis for sanctuary cities. Article I, Section 8 and Article I Section 9 of the United States Constitution gives Congress the authority to establish a uniform rule of naturalization and the authority to make law regarding migration. The First Congress also established a precedent regarding the making of immigration law with the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1790. The United States Congress has the sole authority to make immigration law, and the President of the United States has the authority to execute those laws – not mayors, not governors and not mobs in the streets – the power to establish and enforce immigration policy is not a local issue. It is a federal issue. Period.
Article VI of the U.S. Constitution – the Supremacy Clause – then drives the nail into the coffin of the sanctuary city argument. It states that the Constitution, and all laws made pursuant to it, are the supreme law of the land. That means federal immigration law trumps any feel-good, radical leftist commie policy concocted in the city hall of Los Angeles and the California state offices in Sacramento. When a city or state passes a law in contradiction to any constitutionally authorized federal law, according to Article VI of the Constitution that local or state law is null and void. The lefty California protesters, local officials and State political knuckleheads have no legal ground to stand on.
The cameras pointed at the ICE Riots in Los Angeles have provided us a clear view of what is happening, and what we are seeing are violent demonstrations – violent riots – on the streets of Los Angeles. But, the opposition to Trump’s immigration policies are claiming that they have a “constitutional right to protest,” and that Donald Trump is a tyrant for using federal law enforcement, and potentially the National Guard and U.S. Military, to quell the violence. As they scream freedom of speech and freedom of assembly according to the First Amendment, let’s be reminded that the First Amendment establishes that Congress shall make no law disallowing “peaceable assembly.” I don’t care what the Marxists of the media, the Democratic Party, college campuses and the Antifa apologists on MSNBC and CNN claim – the Constitution calls for legal assembly to be peaceable. That doesn’t mean smashing windows, storming government facilities, and attacking federal law enforcement officers who are doing their jobs under the law.
Those same knuckleheads will tell you that the use of the National Guard, or federal agents, is somehow “authoritarian,” or “anti-democratic.” They can call it all they wish, but the use of these personnel is entirely constitutional. Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the power to call forth the militia – that includes the National Guard – to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. Are they not considering being called into action to make sure immigration law is executed and the personnel already on the ground to carry out that task are protected from violence?
What do you call a violent mob, many of whom are foreign nationals, obstructing the lawful duties of federal officers and attacking immigration facilities? That’s not civil discourse. That’s not free speech. The part of it being carried out by foreign nationals is a part of an invasion – an attack against American personnel on American soil by foreign actors. As for the Americans participating in the ICE Riots in Los Angeles? That, my friends, fits into the category of insurrection – exactly what Article I, Section 8 addresses.
And, let’s not forget Article IV, Section 4: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion.” What is it when you have millions of people crossing the southern border illegally – many of them Chinese nationals, cartel operatives, jihadist sympathizers, and anti-American radicals – only to gather in our streets, undermine our law enforcement, and burn our institutions to the ground?
That is an invasion! And it’s being coordinated, amplified, and covered up by the Democratic Party and their mainstream media accomplices. They don’t see a problem with it – because they benefit from it. They see future votes, political leverage, and permanent power. The border crisis isn’t a failure of policy by the former administration – it’s the success story of a well-planned, well-thought out strategy designed, coordinated, and orchestrated by the radical leftist progressive commie Democrats and their anti-American allies.
Contrast what is going on to how they treated the January 6th Patriots. A group of Americans – many of them retirees, veterans and small business owners – gathered to object to what they believed was a fraudulent election. The overwhelming majority was peaceful. The moments caught on video that was not peaceful mostly happened prior to the folks who had seen President Trump speak even arriving, or they were the result of agitation created by the Capitol Police in the form of physical confrontations or the launch of devices (like flash-bangs) directly into the crowd. Yet, the media called that situation an insurrection, a coup, the “darkest day in American history.” They hunted down and arrested people who did nothing wrong, and jailed grandmas and veterans so that they could rot in prison, because a vast majority of them either walked through velvet ropes at the Capitol, or gathered outside the Capitol to rally, pray, and converse in a peaceful manner.
But, when you have leftists, illegals, and agitators lighting up Los Angeles and violently colliding with law enforcement personnel and federal agents, somehow that’s a “mostly peaceful protest?”
They desire a final unraveling of our orderly society. This is what it looks like when states defy federal law, mobs rule the streets, and elected officials cheer on criminality in the name of social justice.
President Donald Trump’s job is to protect federal properties, and ultimately to restore law and order during this idiotic time of violence in Southern California. Without the rule of law, we are not a republic – we will descend into anarchy with voting booths.
Enough is enough. Bring in the National Guard. Bring in the Marines from Camp Pendleton. Congress and President Trump has every constitutional authority to do so.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
