Here is the latter.

Photos of masked provocateurs waves with Mexican flags on top of Burning Waymo -Taxis spread directly this weekend over conservative social media. Republicans pointed to them as a good example of why President Trump called on the national guard and how immigration had gone too far in California.

“Look at all foreign flags,” said Stephen Miller, the deputy Staff Chef of the White House and the architect of Mr. Trump’s domestic agenda, Sunday on X. “Los Angeles is occupied territory.”

For many Americans, including those on the left, it may seem like a bad strategy to fight deportations of immigrants without papers by waving the flag of another country.

But protesters said this week that they see the Mexican flag as a symbol of resistance against Mr Trump’s immigration policy or solidarity with other Mexican Americans. The flag has become so ubiquitous in recent decades that it is part of the landscape of South California, adorn pick -ups and flutter from bridges. There are few massive meetings in the region without a Mexican flag or two, from weekend football matches to Los Angeles Dodgers Championship Parades.

This week, those they continued to wave said it was important to honor their heritage and not vote with Mr Trump, even while recognizing the potential political costs. They said that the flag was not on-American for them, that it represented their Chicano roots instead of a national loyalty.

The issue is cut in the heart of what it means to be an American, and whether freedom really means that it can fly the banner of your choice.

Bonnie Garcia, 32, a US born in the US from Los Angeles, said she had briefly considered to buy an American flag before she attended a rally on Monday who denounced the use of national guard troops in the city. But she stayed with her original plan to bring two small flags that represent the countries where her parents came from, Guatemala and Mexico.

“I am proud of being American, but in these times Californier is what makes me proud, and seeing the diversity here, given that many people have not forgotten the roots,” she said. “I feel that that is why Trump fears the regulations of diversity and fears for representation in the faces of people because he does not want people to remember, he wants to erase us and I will not stand for that.”

During protests in Los Angeles, Mexican flags made up for a solid majority, many flown by young Americans whose grandparents or great -grandparents came from Mexico. Under the crowds there has also been a sprinkling of American flags, flags from Central -American countries and Palestinian flags. Some protesters brought hybrid flags with the Mexican colors and coat of arms together with the American stars and stripes.

In a nation of immigrants, Americans break out flags from other countries for cultural festivals or holidays, such as Irish Americans on St. Patrick’s Day of Italian Americans on Columbus Day. But in California, where Latinos are a number and Mexican Americans are the largest group of them, Mexican flags are flown throughout the year as a matter of cultural pride.

Nevertheless, optics against protests led to activists in California wondering whether their flag choice was only more feed for Mr Trump, because he continued an immigration net. On social mediaSome progressives suggested that protesters had to replace their foreign flags with American, knowing that their rallies were broadcast nationally every night.

Some on the left said that it was even more than optics important to show that the American flag was not a patriotic symbol for the Maga movement – that the flag of all Americans belongs, including those who oppose Mr. Trump’s deportation.

Lorena Gonzalez, the head of the California Labor Federation, went to the center of Los Angeles on Monday for a meeting with 60 small American flags to hand out.

“Waving with the Mexican flag does not bother me, but I think it is important to remind people that I am very proud to be an American,” said Mrs. Gonzalez, a former Democratic state legislator and the daughter of an immigrant farms, by telephone.

California has had this debate earlier. In the nineties Gov. tried Pete Wilson to end the public benefits for immigrants without papers, making arguments similar to those of Mr Trump today. At the time, white people were the majority in the state, but it was expected to be a Latino plurality, which it did in 2014.

Mr. Wilson defended Proposition 187, a 1994 vote that would have banned the public services for Californians without papers. Mike Madrid, the author of “The Latino Century: how the greatest minority of America transforms democracy” and a Republican political consultant, said that the omnipresence of Mexican flags against the measure the voters of the state so alienated that it has tipped the election.

“You lose the framework of this being about constitution and the right process and human rights when you start waving a foreign flag,” said Mr. Madrid.

Decades after the Stelling 187 fight, Mr. Madrid sees the potential for waving the Mexican flag to help conservatives again this year.

“It hurts Latin’s and it hurts Californians,” he said. “It’s almost so bad that I wonder if it is being orchestrated.”

Kevin De León, a former legislative leader and municipal councilor of Los Angeles, said that the number of Mexican flags on the protests of Los Angeles reminded him of his days as a labor organizer in the 1990s.

“If we had a Redo, we would have worn American flags,” he said. “There should always be American flags. That is a mistake that we have made on the left-We have allowed the right to cooperate the American flag as if it were their own. But we are as American as someone else. We should not allow others to call the flag as if it were exclusively of them.”

Fernando Guerra, The head of the center for Los Angeles study on Loyola Marymount University, agreed that waving Mexican flags was political counterproductive this week.

But in a metropolis where about half of the population is Latino, he said, it is unlikely that Mexican flags will lose their attraction.

“Strategic, should the Mexican flag be waved as it has been to these protests? No,” he said. “But can you prevent that happening? No.”

Maria Flores, 52, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers born in Mexican who have been American citizen for more than two decades, waved the Mexican colors this week.

Mrs Flores said that she also has an American flag, but is worried about wearing an anti-Trump protest because the iconography of star and stripes was so associated with the Maga movement.

“At the moment it may look bad to increase the American flag because of the Trump government,” she said. “If I put the American flag out of my house, my neighbors would think that I am with Trump.”

She described a different custody -miserable family member without papers that has been trying to become legal for years. The effort had failed so far.

“I wear the flag for my family and everyone who has no papers,” she said in Spanish. “I speak for them. I am their voice.”