Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to conduct the biggest deportation program of illegal immigrants in American history. He has a mandate to do just that.

The man he appointed to be deputy director of the FBI, former Fox News conspiracy peddler Dan Bongino, warned the Los Angeles protesters on the weekend that they would be arrested for obstructing deportations: “You bring chaos, and we’ll bring handcuffs.”

Illustration by Dionne GainCredit:

But does Trump have a mandate to start a war on American soil? “The deportation wars begin,” ran the headline on The Wall Street Journal’s editorial. The confrontations on the streets of LA are not episodic or random. They are likely the opening scenes of a new phase in US history.

The problem is not the principle of deporting illegal immigrants. That’s the law. All administrations have followed it, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The problem is the manner in which Trump is doing it. With an enthusiasm verging on bloodlust.

A series of federal sweeps to detain some 100 immigrants over the preceding week brought small numbers of protesters, in their hundreds, to the streets of America’s second most populous city.

It was exactly the sort of situation that the police exist to manage. The LA police had a field team on the streets 38 minutes after the first request was received, according to its chief, Jim McDonnell. Only 12 people were arrested on day one in protests which largely were peaceful.

Protesters confront police near the metropolitan detention centre of downtown Los Angeles on Sunday.Credit: AP

The city’s elected mayor, Democrat Karen Bass, says that the chaos actually was........

© The Age