Has President Donald Trump, like Julius Caesar before him, crossed his Rubicon? Caesar traversed the northern border of the Roman empire with his army in 44 BCE, breaking faith with the Roman Senate, breaking the laws of the empire and instigating a civil war that took down him and the republic. Trump’s actions in Los Angeles with federal troops surrounding protesting citizens may end up as the American replay.

Los Angeles is now a city under attack. The question is by whom?

Los Angeles derives its name from its origins as a Spanish pueblo from 1781: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula. This name is taken from a chapel in Assisi, Italy associated with St. Francis of Assisi: Santa Maria degli Angeli alla Porziuncola. St. Francis, as the recently deceased pope understood, was sainted for his radical embrace of poverty, renunciation of wealth and devotion to service to the poor and dispossessed. That’s not the President’s M.O.

Los Angeles came under United States rule with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The treaty didn’t remove the Mexican residents of Los Angeles, about 1,500 at the time. During the years into the 20th century, the border was porous with people and goods crossing easily back and forth. Los Angeles remained Mexican as well as English in language, culture and population.

During the 20th century, the number of languages spoken in LA exploded as immigrants flowed to the expansive city with no obvious borders. United States seekers of opportunity also migrated from the east coast, dust bowl and southern states.

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For those born and raised in Los Angeles, this history is common knowledge. Anglo Californians and Mexican American Californians have been tied together since the Hidalgo treaty. Los Angeles is an immigration mecca. The city is known for its ethnic neighborhoods reflected in restaurants located on specific blocks serving national cuisines: southern barbecue, New York Italian, Mexican, Guatemalan, El Salvadoran, Honduran, Venezuelan, Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, kosher, Mediterranean, Cuban, Ethiopian, Sudanese, and of course fusion of all of these.

Obviously, Los Angeles has experienced cultural friction and sometimes violence. On the whole, however, people from countries that are enemies live close together in LA without violence. This includes: Jews and Arabs; Koreans and Chinese and Japanese; Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians; Indians and Pakistanis; and many others.

Americans upset by Mexican flags held by some residents should remember the time between Alta California as part of Mexico and California as a state of the U.S. today is short.

Many of the main boulevards between downtown LA and the ocean are based on cow paths used by Mexican ranchers and Anglo developers. These historic roads have a mix of Anglo and Spanish names including Wilshire Boulevard from the Anglo socialist developer of the 1920s to Pico Boulevard from Pio Pico, governor of Alta California who owned ranchos across the LA basin. Sepulveda Boulevard named after the Mexican Sepulveda family is the longest street in Los Angeles County stretching from the South Bay into the north San Fernando Valley.

The point here is Los Angeles at heart is both Mexican and Anglo, among other prominent nationalities and cultures. The city, like Francis of Assisi, has welcomed the poor and the dispossessed from wherever they came.

The president’s claim for an anti-immigration mandate should not include sending in federal military forces to contain local immigration protests against immigration enforcers when local and state law enforcement is adequate for the job. All that’s needed to provoke a conflagration is for a federal soldier to shoot a protester as at Kent State when four students were killed while protesting the war in Vietnam.

If the president wants to do right by immigration, he should work with a bipartisan Congress on legislation. That would be a great, big, beautiful bill.

As of now, he’s taking federal workers off their regular work at the DEA, AFT, the IRS, Treasury, and State Department to pull together data to snare up to 3,000 immigrants a day. Here in Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis is currently being sued by a state Department of Labor employee because the employee was told to fulfill an unsigned ICE subpoena demanding identification of the location of immigrant children and their caretakers. According to the employee and sponsors of privacy legislation signed by the governor, Polis is asking the employee to break state law. That case will go to court as will many others related to the immigration disorder currently provoked by the Trump administration.

When norms are turned inside out to fire up chaos and when laws are broken to achieve dubious goals, the nation pulls apart. Trump is tempting disaster as he brazenly crosses lines established to preserve safety and national unity.

The spine, bones, muscle, and brain of Los Angeles derive from its immigrant eclecticism. President Trump has sent in federal troops to break up protests over immigration roundups. It’s no wonder Angelenos, especially residents from these many immigration backgrounds, feel the hair rise at the back of their necks, risk their necks and organize and protest to protect their fellow residents.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.