Trump officials have cast demonstrators waving the Mexican flag as insurrectionists, but for many protesters who are Mexican American, the flag represents pride in their heritage.
Elizabeth Torres, 36, held a Mexican flag outside the detention center in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday morning.
“I am a very proud American,” said Ms. Torres, whose grandparents immigrated to the United States. “But I have to show support also for our Mexican brothers and sisters.”
Throughout this weekend’s protests, Mexican and other Latin American flags have emerged as protest emblems, angering the Trump administration and its supporters. Trump officials have cast flag wavers as insurrectionists and implied that they are not U.S. citizens.
Stephen Miller, a top White House adviser, called out “foreign nationals, waving foreign flags, rioting and obstructing federal law enforcement attempting to expel illegal foreign invaders” in a social media post on Sunday afternoon.
But for many protesters who are American citizens, the flag signifies pride in their roots, as well as solidarity with immigrants who are being targeted for deportation.
“They’re the children and grandchildren of immigrants,” said Chris Zepeda-Millán, a professor of Chicano studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied the immigrants rights movement in California. “They have no doubt in their own citizenship or their own belonging here, but they understand the racial undertones of the attacks on immigrants,” he said.
“So you’re getting this reaction of ‘We’re not going to let you make us be ashamed of where our parents and grandparents came from,’” Mr. Zepeda-Millán added.
