LOS ANGELES — As images of protests in Southern California have flooded television and social media in recent days, a key question has emerged: Why are so many protesters carrying Mexican flags at an American political protest?

The sea of red, white and green Mexican flags at anti-deportation protests this week in Los Angeles has been seized upon by conservatives who argue that the demonstrations are inherently un-American, causing some protesters to consider leaving them at home.

Photos of masked provocateurs waving Mexican flags atop burning Waymo taxis spread instantly across conservative social media last weekend. Republicans pointed to them as a prime example of why President Donald Trump called in the National Guard and how immigration had gone too far in California.

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

To many Americans, including those on the left, it might seem a bad strategy to fight deportations of immigrants in the country illegally by waving the flag of another country.

But protesters said this week they see the Mexican flag as a symbol of defiance against Trump’s immigration policies or of solidarity with other Mexican Americans. The flag has become so ubiquitous in recent decades that it is a part of the Southern California landscape, adorning pickup trucks and flapping from bridges. Few mass gatherings occur in the region without a Mexican flag or two, from weekend soccer matches to Los Angeles Dodgers championship parades.

This week, those who kept waving them said it was important to honor their heritage and not acquiesce to Trump, even while they recognized the potential political cost. They said the flag to them was not un-American, that it represented their Chicano roots rather than a national allegiance.

The issue has cut to the heart of what it means to be an American, and whether freedom truly means being able to fly the banner of your choosing.

Bonnie Garcia, 32, a U.S.-born citizen from Los Angeles, said she had briefly considered stopping to buy an American flag before attending a rally Monday that denounced the deployment of National Guard troops in the city. But she stuck with her original plan to bring two small flags representing the countries her parents came from — Guatemala and Mexico.

“I’m proud to be American, but in these times, being Californian is what makes me proud, and seeing the diversity here, seeing that a lot of people haven’t forgotten the roots,” she said. “I feel like that’s why Trump fears diversity and fears representation in people’s faces because he doesn’t want people to remember, he wants to erase us, and I’m not going to stand for that.”

At protests in Los Angeles, Mexican flags have made up a solid majority, many flown by young Americans whose grandparents or great-grandparents came from Mexico. Among the crowds, there has also been a sprinkling of U.S. flags, flags from Central American countries and Palestinian flags. Some demonstrators brought hybrid flags that had the Mexican colors and coat of arms along with the American stars and stripes.

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

Still, the optics at protests have caused California activists to ask themselves whether their flag choice was only providing more fodder for Trump as he pursued an immigration crackdown.

On social media, some progressives suggested that protesters should replace their foreign flags with American ones, knowing that their rallies were being aired nationally each night.

Some on the left said that even more than optics, it was important to show that the U.S. flag was not a patriotic symbol for the MAGA movement — that the flag belongs to all Americans, including those who oppose Trump’s deportation push.

California has had this debate before.

Gov. Pete Wilson championed Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot measure that would have banned public benefits for immigrants in the country illegally.

Mike Madrid, author of “The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy” and a Republican political consultant, said the ubiquity of Mexican flags against the measure so alienated the state’s voters that it tipped the election.

“You lose the frame of this being about constitutionality and due process and human rights when you start waving a foreign flag,” Madrid said.

Kevin de León, a former legislative leader and Los Angeles City Council member, said the number of Mexican flags at the Los Angeles protests reminded him of his days as a labor organizer in the 1990s.

“If we had a redo, back in the day, we would have carried American flags,” he said. “There should always be American flags. That’s one mistake that we made on the left — we allowed the right to co-opt the American flag as if it’s their own.