My hometown of LA has right to be angry as Trump sends in the Marines | Opinion
Even if you think the crackdown on illegal immigration is necessary, it is not conservative to crash through neighborhoods to round up people who have become part of the community.
My hometown of Los Angeles has witnessed an outpouring of intense, and to varying degrees violent, protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers who are engaged in detaining illegal/undocumented immigrants.
The protests have precipitated a mobilization of the National Guard, and even the dispatching of a small contingent of Marines, as protesters collide with ICE and other law enforcement officers.
The federal involvement signals an escalation in what has become the most striking episode of civil unrest in California since the summer of 2020.
The alarmism surrounding Los Angeles is understandable. The fury over the immigration issue also is understandable. I am born and raised in LA. I'm generally conservative on the immigration question. But it is important for us to take a nuanced look at the outrage we are seeing in Los Angeles.
Consequences of illegal immigration have hurt my community
Undocumented/illegal immigration (take your pick) has had a damaging impact on certain communities in Los Angeles for many years. That impact has been most concentrated in Black communities, which have largely dissolved due to the overwhelming influx of immigrants, particularly from Latin America.
Political marginalization, wage competition and the strains placed on public benefits and the public school system have outraged many members of Black Los Angeles.
That was one of the primary issues in my congressional campaign against Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters in 2014, when Black activists in the district allied with the GOP largely because of concerns about immigration.
Two years later, I went door-to-door in Los Angeles to recruit participants for a University of Southern California study on eye health in the Black community. At one point, I found myself speaking to an older Black woman who had a newspaper propped up on her sofa. Headlines declared the victory of newly elected President Donald Trump.
“Do you have a problem with my newspaper?” she asked, noting my glance toward it as we spoke in her living room. “Well, if you do, then you can just get the hell on. I voted for this man and you know why? Because he is going to get rid of these damn illegals who are ruining our community.”
Black Angelenos have been affected by violence, often in areas where law-abiding citizens already have to fear greater than normal rates of crime. The strain on public services also represents a financial burden on taxpayers. Other pressures placed on an already crowded city by increased numbers of immigrants stoke frustration.
All these problems are real. People are right to call attention to them.
But that's not all there is to the story.
Illegal immigration is more nuanced than many believe
The nuances occupy a couple of categories. There are benefits to undocumented immigration that accrue to the upper middle class and certain businesses. That much is clear, even if it's not a privilege that Americans living outside of Los Angeles’ suburban middle class care to preserve for them.
But cheaper services, domestic work, construction and automotive labor are things many people often benefit from by way of undocumented immigrants. It's become a way of life for much of Los Angeles' upper economic classes.
When I say "way of life," I am referring to something deeper then the mere economic. I am talking about the culture of communities, the norms and relationships we grow accustomed to. This is the second category of nuanced reality people need to understand when observing Los Angeles in this moment. It's the nuances of community.
Illegal immigrants and their families, including their children who've inherited birthright citizenship, are part of our community. They are the abuela with the tamale stand by the park, the mechanic you joke around with at the auto shop or the gardener who feels like an uncle.
The kids I went to school with in Culver City, who were made citizens by virtue of a constitutional interpretation that I believe violates the 14th Amendment, were my friends. They were no less a part of my community for having undocumented parents.
People who have lived their lives generally at peace with their undocumented neighbors and their families have stronger bonds with these immigrants than with the faceless ICE agents who burst into our neighborhoods to remove people we know.
Now, I have a great deal of sympathy for ICE agents as well. They are the spear tip of an effort to respond to the neglect of territorial sovereignty perpetrated by the U.S. government for generations.
It is one of the great betrayals of American interests, in favor of politicians and corporations, that unchecked illegal immigration should have reached such a scale over such a period of time. I don't blame federal agents for doing their job or for believing in it.
This doesn't change the fact that, in Los Angeles, ICE agents are the ones who look like aliens.
Trump's deportation policy stands in the shadow of American history
All of this highlights an irony in the Trump administration’s approach to rectifying the immigration issue. As conservative as the principles of national sovereignty and rule of law are, conservatism also stands for the continuity of community, the respecting of norms, customs and relationships that give a place its character.
These norms and relationships sometimes evolve in initially unlawful or tragic circumstances. American frontiersmen invaded Native American territory, even against the edicts of the U.S. government, at almost every turn in the early expansion of our nation.
We can say that happened long ago, so it doesn't matter now. But would it be right to uproot families now because of the unlawful invasion of Native American territory generations ago? Many of those who are most incensed about the porousness of our border and the accommodations we make to the undocumented are also the most proud of our American founding and the frontier spirit of our heritage.
There are differences of opinion with respect to the scope of deportations, even among those who advocate for a crackdown on illegal immigration. Some favor deporting only flagrant criminals; others want those who crossed the border recently to be returned to their home countries.
Then there are some who favor deporting as many illegal immigrants as possible, regardless of their behavior and their contributions since arriving. For those who argue for mass deportation, how can we look at illegal immigrants as criminals without regarding in the same way our own ancestors who invaded Native Americans' territory and violently displaced the inhabitants?
If the view is that our American ancestors, while worse than imperfect, laid by God's grace the foundation for communities that grew into a great nation, then isn't there a case to be made for charity and accommodation in dealing with most of our undocumented neighbors now?
Of course, certain people make having empathy for the undocumented very hard. That includes not only those who wave Mexican flags in the face of legal authority while insisting on their "right" to remain in the nation illegally. It also includes their allies who take zero inventory of the damage done to communities and to the rule of law by policies that allow for mass illegal immigration.
Still, when my best friend's first son was born, I remember his mother, an elderly woman who immigrated to the United States decades ago, approaching me at the celebration of her grandson's birth with a gift basket that held a Mexican flag and an American flag.
She said to me: "Mi nieto es un Mexicano y un Americano tambien." ("My grandson is a Mexican and an American too.")
Her point was that her family was proud of their heritage, but they were also proud to be a part of a nation and a community that she and I shared across the gulf of language and legal status.
LA has a right to be angry. But we need a better answer.
Personally, I might aggressively shut the border, and build a wall if it actually helped, because I believe that we blew past a reasonable volume of immigration a long time ago. It's a good thing that Trump has essentially frightened the world into no longer trying to cross our border illegally. That had to end.
Democratic politicians like California Gov. Gavin Newsom have invited the pendulum swing on immigration by pushing it so far the other way. Now, Trump, never one to be concerned with proportionality, threatens to escalate tensions further in the name of rule of law.
Yet, even if you think the crackdown on illegal immigration is necessary, it is not conservative to crash through neighborhoods to round up people who have become part of the community.
America must understand that Los Angeles is not Omaha, not Savannah and not Des Moines. Los Angeles has a right to be angry. Los Angeles has a right to be LA.
There should be a better way. Sadly, it seems like nobody is looking for one.
John Wood Jr. is a columnist for Paste BN Opinion. He is national ambassador for Braver Angels, a former nominee for Congress, former vice chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, musical artist, and a noted writer and speaker on subjects including racial and political reconciliation. Follow him on X: @JohnRWoodJr