The LA Unrest Poses A Pressing National Security Threat To The US

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

This is because it concerns the country’s second-largest city, could disrupt one of its top economic hubs, and might evolve into an irredentist campaign by Mexican nationalists and their US leftist allies.

Large-scale unrest has gripped parts of Los Angeles since late last week in response to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) recent operations against illegal immigrants there. Trump authorized the National Guard to restore order but clashes still continue. The unrest poses a pressing national security threat since it concerns the country’s second-largest city, could disrupt one of its top economic hubs, and might evolve into an irredentist campaign by Mexican nationalists and their US leftist allies.

The immediate roots are the Biden Administration’s de facto open borders policy that allowed millions of illegal immigrants, mostly from Ibero-America, to flood into the country. Then there’s the influence of summer 2020’s unrest, which convinced activists and agitators alike, including the professionals among them, that they can riot with impunity. And finally, the Mexican Cession from the mid-19th century is also relevant, which some Mexican nationalists and their US leftist allies refuse to recognize as legitimate.

These factors combined to catalyze the ongoing unrest, which has seen the involvement of various NGOs, radical leftist movements, and like-minded philanthropist Neville Singham according to “Data Republican’s” viral two-part investigation on X. This has led to parallels being drawn to summer 2020’s Hybrid War of Terror on America that was analyzed here at the time. To be sure, some of the participants in both were genuinely autonomous, but others were and are operating as part of something larger.

Observers should also remember that Democrat-aligned elements of the US “deep state” funneled American arms to Mexican cartels as part of Operation Fast & Furious, which they maintain was a botched sting operation though critics remain convinced that it was something more nefarious. It therefore can’t be ruled out that some of these forces at the very least wouldn’t mind if those cartels sow chaos on the US’ side of the border on the pretext of “protesting” ICE to create problems for Trump.

Beyond the speculative involvement of (possibly “deep state”-backed) Mexican cartels, there are also autonomously acting Mexican nationalists among the illegal immigrant, naturalized, and second- and later-generation communities in LA that are participating in the unrest together with US leftists. They’re allies in that neither recognizes the legitimacy of the mid-19th century’s Mexican Cession, ergo their support for open borders in order to “reclaim” this lost territory as a form of “historical justice”.

Some multipolar-minded apologists have likened this to the uprisings in Crimea and Donbass after “EuroMaidan”, but the key difference is that they were led by Ukrainian citizens of Russian origin who rebelled in defense of their human rights after radicals seized power and threatened to subjugate them. By contrast, the Trump Administration hasn’t signaled that it’ll do anything similar against legal American residents of Ibero-American origin, it’s simply enforcing the law by expelling illegal immigrant invaders.

Legal US residents of Ibero-American origin can freely speak, publish in, and teach their languages. They also have equal rights (apart from being unable to vote till obtaining citizenship) and benefited from “affirmative action”. For all intents and purposes, Mexican nationalists who legally reside in the US can live as if they’re in Mexico (even better since they otherwise wouldn’t have left) so long as they remain law-abiding, thus discrediting the “historical justice” argument that some have used to justify the unrest.

Nevertheless, some of the rioters are clearly driven by nationalist motives as proven by them waving the Mexican flag as they violently attack members of the security services, hence the importance in quelling the unrest as soon as possible so that it doesn’t spiral out of control. There are also political and economic considerations too, but these pale in comparison to the need to expel illegal immigrants from the border region, especially those Mexicans who might resort to terrorism to further irredentist plans.

About that, it’s possible that violent irredentism isn’t all that popular among Mexican illegal immigrants but that (possibly “deep state”-backed) cartels from there and elsewhere like Venezuela are trying to push this notion, hoping that it’ll provoke copycat unrest in other major cities. Most of them in the US have significant Ibero-American populations, including illegal immigrants, so the real orchestrators (if there are any as is speculated) might hope to “inspire” “solidarity protests” across the US.

All that can be known for sure is that the images of Mexican flag-waving rioters in LA naturally give rise to worries of an emerging irredentist campaign that poses a pressing national security threat to the US and therefore challenges Trump to employ all legal means at his disposal to put it down or else. Despite everything that he’s done so far following the letter of the law, his opponents might soon dishonestly accuse him of behaving as a “fascist dictator”, all in an attempt to “inspire” more unrest.

Therein lies the objective of the real orchestrators and/or political opportunists depending on one’s belief about who’s behind the riots: it’s all about eroding Trump’s authority, misportraying him as a “fascist dictator”, and altogether galvanizing the Democrats far ahead of fall 2026’s midterms. These goals are being advanced by autonomously acting participants and professionals alike, with some of the first not realizing the role that they’re playing the larger scheme, thus making it a Color Revolution.

This description doesn’t automatically imply regime change intentions nor the involvement of a foreign government, it only refers to the weaponization of protests, which is nowadays common across the world after the relevant socio-political technology wildly proliferated over the past quarter-century. The reported involvement of so many diverse actors in this one shows how serious the attempt is to destabilize the Trump Administration, which could have far-reaching global implications if it succeeds.