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The vendors were selling a variety of colorful national flags in downtown LA on Wednesday, but Axel Martinez said one had an old glory and a Mexican flag in half, while the other had a glory.
The 26-year-old was born in the United States, grew up in Mexico City and returned to the state for opportunities, he said. On Wednesday, he was among hundreds of other protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Approximately 12 flags from Mexico, the United States, California, Guatemala and El Salvador have flipped over the crowd.
“Everyone has a story here,” Martinez said. “I’m a Mexican and I’m proud to be born here.”
For eight days, protesters headed to downtown L.A. to protest against the city’s immigration detention and the presence of the National Guard. Images of the flag, mainly from Mexico, have spread to news reports and social media. Even proponents of the demonstration criticize the display of foreign flags and claim they send the wrong message. Members of the Trump administration have posted minor sign images on social media posts, calling the protest “invasion” or “rebellion.”
“Look at all foreign flags,” President Trump’s vice-Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted on social platform X on Sunday calling Los Angeles the “occupied territory.”
Vice President JD Vance called the protesters X’s “rebels who raised foreign flags.”
However, when several protesters were asked why they waving foreign flags instead of US red white and blue, many offered similar answers.
“Why not?” Martinez said.
On Monday near First Avenue and Alameda Avenue, 46-year-old Christopher Kim adorned the Korean flag on her back like a cape.
It was the first time he had decided to take part in the protest, and when he grabbed Tegeukh, he never thought of it again.
“I was watching all these flags fly there, and it’s not just Koreans, Mexicans, Guatemalan people here,” he said. “There are people from all over the world who live here. There’s a community here.”
For him, bringing the flag was a tribute to his immigrant parents.
“They aren’t here, but this represents my roots,” he said. “This flag is my home and my family.”
Asked whether to fly banners from other countries during the protest, Kim scofed his head, should it be considered offensive or counterproductive.
“This country is made up of immigrants,” he said. “Is this aggressive for everyone?”
Earlier in the week, a 21-year-old woman identified herself as Jade bought a Mexican flag and joined a wild protester on Alameda Street.
“These are our people,” she told reporters Monday.
Both she and her parents were born in the United States, but their grandparents moved from Mexico. Carrying the red, white and green flags nodded to them and their sacrifices, she said.
“I came from immigrant families and I’m here for them,” she said. “This is my country. This is my family.”
Upon further down the street, Ariel Miller left the police line and wanted to avoid being fired by officers trying to disperse the crowd.
She turned to the police line and waved the blue and white Salvador flag. She is not Latin America, she said, but she was waving the flag for her close friends who couldn’t go to protest.
“I got this for her, because I wanted her to know that she wasn’t here, so I love her and I’m here for her,” she said. “She has a family. This is a really scary time.”
In the sea of people marching and chanting, the coat of arms of arms in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries were markers of community composition, she said. The flag is like a historical feature that brought them to the same location to protest the existence of new immigrants and immigration customs enforcement in Los Angeles.
The flag said, “You can’t erase me, and I’m important.” “You can take pride in who you are and where you came from.”
Miller wasn’t the demonstrator to raise the flag for someone else this week.
Najee Go, a black man and Minnesota-grown man, arrived downtown on Wednesday carrying a Mexican flag and chanted a crowd with a megaphone outside the Metropolitan Detention Center.
His fiancé is from El Salvador, he explained, but the man who sold the flag was exhausted from the blue and white flags. He chose the familiar red, white and green tricholler.
“It personally affected me,” he said of the recent immigrant attack. Like other immigrants, he said his fiancé is afraid.
He hears critics say foreign flags should not be carried in protest, but he shrugs it.
“It’s like saying, ‘Don’t shake your legacy, your history,'” he said.
He said that in protests seeking to highlight key contributions to immigration and diversity, a collection of national banners will help highlight that message. And that includes stars and stripes.
“It’s beautiful, it looks, it’s pretty much [U.S.] The flag is upside down,” he said, looking at the crowd. “It should be the flag of everything.”
One flag vendor was selling the variety for $10 each in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center, where protesters had been gathering for several days near the National Guard troops.
On Wednesday, he said he drove off the Guatemala and El Salvador flags quickly. He said he would probably be free to hand out the remaining flags to protesters before he could go home. It was his third day in his protest and he said he would only bring in a new batch the next day.
He refused to give his name, but he said he not only earned a few dollars for his family, but also sold the flag to support the protesters.
When the face mask demonstrator slammed the pocket of his pants and informed him that he didn’t have the flag cash, the Bender handed him the Mexican flag anyway.
“I also got my family that was deported,” he said. “When this all started, they were picked up.”
Despite images displayed by critics, the US flag also flew in between the protests.
Javiera Burton, 25, from Chile, flew the US flag on Wednesday.
“We live in the US, and this is the flag,” she said, but she added that she was not worried about the plane being flew in the protest. “I think people should do what they want to do.”
At one point during Wednesday’s protest, she said she assumed that she was also supporting the immigration crackdown that took place in recent days as supporters of President Trump’s immigration policy approached her and she was flying the American flag.
So she said she cut off the US flag from its pole and hung upside down, a symbol of pain.
“We’re fighting for this country, we’re fighting for our people,” she said.
For some people who are flying foreign flags, the intention was to connect different communities of protesters, they said.
“The flag I carry is not my flag. It’s our flag,” said Kim, who raised the Korean flag. “It represents the whole of people and struggles to survive with dreams and hopes that are common to all humans.”
When he saw the Latin American flag in a protest newscast, he said it seemed like an invitation he would take part in.
“Everyone there is holding them [flag] For what it represents: people in Los Angeles,” he said.
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