When local police can’t restore order, the federal government has a duty to do so with a show of force.

Violent insurrectionists turned areas of Los Angeles into lawless hellscapes over the weekend, with anarchists setting fire to vehicles, throwing scooters and debris at police, and looting businesses—all while waving foreign flags.

Meanwhile, incredibly, Democrats and the liberal media have again called this outbreak of violence “mostly peaceful protests,” while in the same breath blaming the riots, arson, and looting on President Trump for enforcing immigration law. The New York Times described “largely peaceful” riots with fireworks fired at police, cars set on fire, and more than 150 arrests.

The threat from the radical left is clear: Don’t enforce immigration laws. If you do, left-wing street militias will burn down cities, and Democratic politicians will back the rioters. The president is absolutely right to reject this threat, enforce immigration laws, and restore civil order.

At the risk of again sending liberals to their fainting couches, it may indeed be time to send in the troops. Let’s look at the facts for some context.

President Biden permitted—even encouraged—a slow-motion invasion of America that allowed murderers, rapists and other violent criminals to enter our country illegally. In November, the American people elected Donald Trump and a Republican Congress to secure our border and deport violent illegal aliens. That’s exactly what the president is doing.

The latest enforcement operation in Los Angeles rounded up illegal-alien criminals with lengthy rap sheets. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the operation resulted in the arrests of illegal aliens charged with crimes including second-degree murder, willful cruelty to a child, sexual battery and assault with a deadly weapon.

Democrats put such violent illegal aliens and their anarchist sympathizers ahead of the police, law-abiding citizens and legal immigrants whose communities are being terrorized.

Is anyone surprised? Democrats also stood idly by or even celebrated as the Black Lives Matter riots ransacked our cities five years ago. If anything, these riots are worse. At least the BLM rioters didn’t wave foreign flags.

The solution now is the same as I said then: an overwhelming show of force to end the riots.

As always, local police are the first line of defense, but when the police can’t restore order—or aren’t allowed to by Democratic mayors—the National Guard must be called out. We reached this point in Los Angeles, where the police chief has said that the “disgusting” violence has “overwhelmed” his forces, adding that “there’s no limit to what they’re doing to our officers” and “we’ve seen violence at a level that disgusts every good person.”

Mr. Newsom—incompetent and ideological all at once—refused to mobilize the National Guard, leaving Mr. Trump little choice but to federalize the California Guard to protect federal law-enforcement agents and restore order. He has unquestioned legal authority to do so, plus many precedents. In my own state, a Democratic governor mobilized the Arkansas Guard to obstruct the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957, forcing President Dwight Eisenhower to federalize the Guard and enable desegregation.

Finally, if the Guard alone can’t restore order and protect federal officers and property, the president can use active-duty troops under the Insurrection Act of 1807, a law almost as old as the republic. Thus far, Mr. Trump has taken a measured approach and said he doesn’t yet see a need to invoke the Insurrection Act. Let’s hope that the National Guard, federal law enforcement and local police can end the anarchy and restore order to Los Angeles.

In addition to the overwhelming show of force, Congress also needs to show our support for federal law enforcement. This week, I’m introducing legislation to stiffen penalties for rioters who attack law enforcement and to make riot-related crimes a deportable offense for noncitizens.

Further, the Republican budget bill provides a huge funding boost to immigration authorities so they can secure our border and deport criminal illegal aliens out of our country.

These ideas are basic common sense, but as was the case five years ago, the Democrats haven’t learned. It isn’t “inflammatory,” as Mr. Newsom claimed, to enforce federal law, stand with law enforcement and protect civilians. It’s necessary to keep the peace.

Mr. Cotton, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Arkansas.

To see this article in its entirety and to subscribe to others like it, please choose to read more.

Source: Tom Cotton: Send In the Troops, for Real – WSJ