As protests against immigration crackdowns spread from Los Angeles to cities around the United States this week, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., leveraged the perceived unrest to target nonprofits supporting the very communities the Trump administration has put under siege.

President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard and the Marines, while the Los Angeles Police Department carried out a brutal response to protests objecting to workers’ arbitrary detention by masked ICE agents in Los Angeles. After fueling the chaos in support of Trump’s deportation regime, Republicans used the moment to target nonprofit leaders and discredit protesters as “bought and paid-for flash mobs.”

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