The arrest of thousands of people in raids targeting illegal immigration in Los Angeles has spiraled into violence that only benefits President Donald Trump's ambitions. The raids began Friday in several predominantly Latino neighborhoods, including an industrial warehouse in the city's downtown area. The show of force, apparently prompted by Trump's frustration with the number of immigrant arrests, sparked a small protest of a few hundred people. Further raids on Saturday were met with resistance in the streets. The demonstrations of support continued into Sunday with clashes with federal immigration enforcement and with the Los Angeles police when they attempted to maintain order. The sight of a burning car and citizens struggling with officers was all the White House needed to send no fewer than 2,000 National Guard troops to quell the protests.

The National Guard is a militarized reserve force mobilized at the request of a state governor in emergency situations, primarily natural disasters. The same president who didn't consider it necessary to mobilize the Washington, D.C., National Guard in 2021 during his supporters' assault on the Capitol to subvert the election has now dismissed a street protest in Los Angeles as a rebellion against the government that even all the state's police forces cannot contain.

The White House's ridiculous argument has only one goal: to escalate the spiral of tension as much as possible to justify a spectacle of large-scale repression. The proof is that, despite the protests' waning intensity, Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 more reservists and 700 Marines on Monday. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit against the federal government and eloquently described the situation by calling for the protests to proceed peacefully:"Don't give him the excuse he's looking for."

Donald Trump's authoritarian drift is becoming increasingly blatant in a country that places freedom of expression and a radical separation of powers at the top of its hierarchy. In this sequence of institutional degradation, the events in Los Angeles could be a watershed that, although expected, is nonetheless shocking: the mobilization of the Armed Forces to suppress civil protests. If Congress and the courts do not allow California to defend itself against this blatant abuse of laws intended for wartime situations, this week could be remembered as the moment when the door was opened to a dark chapter in American democracy.