The pro-immigration protests that erupted last week in Los Angeles have now spread across the United States. On Tuesday there were confrontations between police and demonstrators in Atlanta, Chicago and Denver, where tear gas was used to disperse a crowd. Police in New York City arrested 45 people as they came under attack from a variety of projectiles thrown by a mob that numbered several hundred. Demonstrators shouted ‘shame, shame’; one local councillor, Shahana Hanif, accused the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of ‘attacking our communities’.
The anti-ICE protestors are in the minority
The protests began in L.A. last Friday when ICE officers began rounding up suspected illegal immigrants in the Hispanic districts of Westlake and Paramount. In one raid ICE arrested 44 unauthorised immigrants at a job site.
Donald Trump promptly despatched 700 Marines to L.A., and doubled the National Guard’s presence to 4,000 in an attempt to restore order to a city where so far 23 businesses have been looted by demonstrators.
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