Los Angeles is on its seventh consecutive day of riots. The past week has seen U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) raids meet with violent resistance from rioters waving foreign flags, prompting President Donald Trump to federalize California’s National Guard and send in hundreds of U.S. Marines, which in turn has prompted backlash from Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and other Democrats. Here are the latest updates on the chaos in L.A. and its impact on the nation.

Fear and Looting in Los Angeles

As The Washington Stand previously noted, it didn’t take long for looting to break out in the City of Angels, but the deep-blue city’s new district attorney has given up his predecessor’s soft approach to crime. Criminal defense attorney David Wohl told Fox News that L.A. now has “a very conservative, hard-charging D.A.” in Nathan Hochman, who is leveling felony charges against looters. Last year, Californians undid much of the disastrous Prop. 47, which had effectively decriminalized most theft and looting, provided that less than $950 worth of merchandise was stolen. Now, Hochman is free to charge repeat offenders with felonies and seek more severe sentences for group theft and organized looting.

Federal prosecutors are also cracking down on rioters. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will charge rioters and looters under the Hobbs Act, which could send those convicted to prison for a maximum of 20 years. ICE has also arrested an illegal immigrant, 23-year-old Mexican national Emiliano Garduno-Galvez, for throwing Molotov cocktails at federal agents. He has been charged with attempted murder.

“These are the types of criminal illegal aliens that rioters are fighting to protect,” said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She asserted, “The Los Angeles rioters will not stop us or slow us down. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” DHS investigators also arrested Christian Damian Cerno-Camacho, “a violent rioter who punched” a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer. DHS affirmed over social media, “Our officers are facing a 413% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murder[er]s, rapists, and gang members.”

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons described in an interview the danger law enforcement officers are facing due to the riots. “I’m actually out here in L.A. I’ve been on the ground since Saturday with the folks seeing this stuff firsthand. What I can tell you is it’s pure anarchy,” Lyons reported. He continued, “It’s bad out here. To think that all we’re trying to do is our law enforcement mission and we have to deal with this — it’s just so un-American on so many different scales.”

ICE, ICE, Baby

As has been widely reported, the riots began as a response to ICE immigration raids in L.A. Despite the ensuing mayhem, ICE has continued its efforts to fulfill the president’s deportation agenda. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reported Wednesday that ICE has arrested over 300 illegal immigrants just during the riots. “Since June 6, there have been 330 illegal aliens who have been arrested as part of these riots in Los Angeles,” Leavitt said in a press conference. She added that 113 “of those illegal aliens had prior criminal convictions.”

DHS confirmed in a press release that arrested illegal immigrants include those with convictions for homicide, child sexual assault, human trafficking, drug trafficking, theft, burglary, and fraud, among other criminal charges. In one instance, ICE arrested an illegal immigrant with pending rape and sexual assault charges who had just been released from jail by L.A. authorities hours earlier, in the midst of rioting.

ICE operations have expanded in scope beyond illegal immigrants in downtown L.A. Agents have also begun executing arrests at farms and food processing and packaging facilities. On Wednesday, for example, ICE agents and other federal officers were attacked while arresting illegal immigrants working at a meat packaging plant in Omaha, Nebraska.

Riots Go on Tour

As ICE operations are carried out in other states and cities across the country, riots are quickly following. In Chicago, police have been struggling against thousands of protestors in the streets — literally in the streets, shutting down traffic while marching under foreign flags. Rioters in Seattle have begun tearing down and burning American flags, while chaos has also erupted in nearby Spokane. Smoke bombs have been flying as rioters face off against police, prompting Mayor Lisa Brown (D) to declare a city-wide state of emergency. Spokane rioters have ignored a curfew imposed by Brown, barricaded an ICE detention facility, and clashed with city and county police. New York City has also seen its share of chaos. Anti-deportation activists have shut down Manhattan streets and torched at least eight New York Police Department (NYPD) vehicles. Nearly 100 have been arrested so far, according to the New York Post.

Leftist Bankrolling of Riots

As riots crop up with alarming alacrity, Republicans are looking into how these mass disruptions are being funded. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked Wednesday, “Who is funding the LA riots? This violence isn’t spontaneous.” He announced that the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, which Hawley chairs, is launching an investigation to determine who’s bankrolling the chaos.

The senator issued a letter to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, writing, “Credible reporting now suggests that your organization has provided logistical support and financial resources to individuals engaged in these disruptive actions.” He added, “Let me be clear: bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech. It is aiding and abetting criminal conduct. Accordingly, you must immediately cease and desist any further involvement in the organization, funding, or promotion of these unlawful activities.”

Concerns have been raised over the resources available to L.A. rioters in particular. Reports and photo and video evidence have documented pallets of bricks, cinder blocks, and concrete slabs placed strategically throughout the city, in addition to riot-style face shields being distributed to agitators.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has previously threatened to “mobilize” Mexican nationals against the U.S. if Trump followed through on his promise to tax remittances sent from Mexican nationals in the U.S. to Mexico. “If necessary, we’ll mobilize. We don’t want taxes on remittances from our fellow countrymen from the U.S. to Mexico,” she said in a speech less than three weeks before rioting began. FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the nation’s top law enforcement agency is examining the funding sources behind the violence. “The FBI is investigating any and all monetary connections responsible for these riots,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Rep. Tony Wied (R-Wis.) introduced legislation Wednesday to strip federal funding from “anarchist jurisdictions,” cities and states where authorities and elected officials refuse to uphold or enforce the law in times of civil unrest. He wrote, “In this Act, the term ‘anarchist jurisdiction’ means a State or unit of local government that has refused to take reasonable steps to stop acts of violence and destruction of property in that jurisdiction.”

Democrats Blame Trump

The riots — and the related immigration raids — have prompted a strong response from Trump, which has in turn prompted much complaining from Democrats. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (D) has outright faulted the president for the riots. “A week ago, everything was peaceful in the city of Los Angeles,” Bass claimed in a Wednesday press conference. She said, “Things began to be difficult on Friday, when raids took place, and it’s important that I begin there because that is the cause of the problems that have happened in the city of Los Angeles and other cities.” The mayor continued, “This was provoked by the White House. The reason why — we don’t know. I posit that maybe we are part of a national experiment to determine how far the federal government can go in reaching in and taking over power from a governor, power from a local jurisdiction, and frankly leaving our city and our citizens, our residents in fear.”

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) also blamed the president for the chaos. “He has a responsibility in all of this, he started this. There should be no violence, he should not continue to support violence,” Waters claimed, addressing Trump’s federalization of the National Guard and deployment of Marines, which she posited incited violence. “Leadership should be from the President of the United States, who decided that he was going to send the armed guards in when there was no violence. There were no protesters at that time,” the congresswoman said, blatantly contradicting days’ worth of on-the-ground reporting and documentary evidence.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also claimed that Trump is responsible for violence, while Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) alleged that the president’s immigration policy is racist. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested that the torching of cars and assaulting of law enforcement officers in L.A. may not have been a politically-motivated riot but simply of matter of overexcitement. “You always have to be careful, whether you see a burned car, a broken window, whatever it is. It may be the exuberance of the moment,” the former House Speaker said, earning scorn on social media. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) took to the television to label ICE operations a form of “domestic terrorism.”

Polls Show Popularity of Trump’s Deportation Agenda

Despite the claims of Democrats, Americans not only support the president’s deportation agenda but also back his management of the riots so far. An RMG Research survey found that a majority of Americans favor both deportations (58%) and Trump’s use of National Guard and Marine soldiers to control the rioting. A CBS poll also found that a majority (54%) support deportations, while an Insider Advantage poll reported that 59% of voters supported the president’s use of federal forces in L.A.

During a congressional hearing this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explained the president’s deployment of federal forces in L.A. “The mission in Los Angeles ... is not about lethality,” Hegseth declared. He continued, “It’s about maintaining law and order on behalf of law enforcement agents who deserve to do their job without being attacked by mobs of people.” He added, “We’re very proud that the National Guard and the Marines are on the streets defending ICE agents, and they will continue to do that.”