When immigrant rights advocates saw the number of people attending demonstrations across the country protesting the Trump administration’s mass deportation operations, they cheered.
Then photos of burning cars across Los Angeles started to go viral.
“Anybody that burns a car, anybody that throws a rock, anybody that reacts with violence, they might as well be on the payroll of Donald Trump,” said former Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, a Democrat who was arrested at immigration protests during the first Trump administration. “People come together because there’s a ruthless regime that is just destroying families left and right, but they’re going to see that narrative is lost.”