“France is burning!” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, urging the country to close its borders “before it is too late.” He added that “the immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country.”
Trump was following Vice President JD Vance, who had made the same argument hours earlier. On the Saturday before, more than half a million people marched across France in a nationwide protest against the high cost of living. Looting, arson and property damage broke out in many cities, with masked rioters attacking town halls, police stations and other government buildings. Vance posted video on X of the city hall in Limoges on fire.
The message to American voters
“Western liberals imported the third world into France and other countries in the name of diversity and compassion,” Vance wrote. “They ignored fundamental questions of assimilation and compatibility.” He said he hoped Americans were paying attention, because this “is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country.”
The timing is not subtle. Midterm elections arrive on November 3, with every House seat and roughly a third of the Senate on the ballot. Trump is known for restrictive immigration policies and aggressive deportation measures, and he has repeatedly accused Democrats of harming the country with a liberal approach.
What residents in Washington state say
At home, support for the crackdown looks softer. A Fox News poll put Trump’s approval on immigration at 43%, down five points from last summer, and a majority of respondents said enforcement has gone too far. A September Politico poll found mass deportations opening divisions within his own base. In Washington state, KUOW analyzed ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and found that most arrests this summer were of people with no criminal record.
KUOW also asked residents what they make of it. Mark Ibay, a clerk at Western State Hospital, came from the Philippines in 2019 and became a citizen in 2025. He still carries his passport card everywhere. “The current enforcement is really scary,” he said, adding that “a lot of innocent souls” get caught in the crossfire.
Diana McAllister, founder of the Family Academy, which teaches parents to homeschool, sees it the other way. She says she was once a card-carrying Democrat and now calls herself ultra-conservative. “If they come into this country illegally, they need to go home,” she said. Still, she thinks employers who need workers should do the paperwork, however burdensome the visa process proves.
Others sit between those poles. Levi Sweeney, a self-described “dyed-in-the-wool Republican” who voted for Trump in 2024, said career criminals should be deported but people with clean records should be shown leniency. Cheryl Hanson, a recruiter, called the enforcement neither humane nor democratic. Her grandfather was turned away after fleeing Poland in the 1920s but got in anyway. “I wouldn’t exist if he hadn’t been allowed into the U.S,” she said.
Sources
- Trump joins Vance in blaming immigration for French riots
- Immigration law
- 7 Washingtonians share their views on Trump's immigration policy
Photo: Daniel Torok (Public domain)
