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The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Republicans fear the Mexican flag at the LA protests. But I see it as a symbol of our power
Republicans are using images of Ice protesters waving Mexican flags atop burning Waymo cars to foment fear among Americans. Like this photograph that Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday: a shirtless protester wielding the Tricolor atop a vandalized robotaxi as flames billow toward the weak sunlight backlighting the flag. His dark curls fall to his bare shoulders. He stares into the camera. Frankly, the image belongs in a museum. I understand my reaction is not the feeling Republicans hope to inspire in Americans broadly this week. Their messaging thus far about the protests against immigration raids in Latino communities has largely been alarmist – proof, they say, of an 'invasion' of 'illegal aliens'. 'Look at all the foreign flags. Los Angeles is occupied territory,' said Stephen Miller on X. According to Adam Kinzinger, a former congressman and more moderate voice, the Mexican flags carried by protesters are 'terrible… and feeding right into Donald Trump's narrative'. 'I just think that it would be much stronger if they were carrying American flags only,' he said on CNN this week. By this logic, Mexican flags are proof-positive that Mexican Americans are not really American; that we are somehow collaborating on a planned 'invasion'; that we harbor secret loyalties to Mexico; that we're here to displace white people and undermine the American way of life via some Plan Aztlan. In short, none of this is true. In front of Congress Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, cited the presence of 'flags from foreign countries' in LA to legitimize supporting Trump's deployment of the National Guard. This unilateral invocation of Title 10 by the Trump administration, without the consent of the governor, is exceedingly aggressive. So is the deployment of 700 US Marines to be used to crush American protest in an American city. The subtext here is that by many metrics, American's patience for Ice and its antics is wearing thin, even as Ice's deportation numbers are anemic compared to past administrations. The Trump administration realizes something has to change. Fanning outrage about a flag is both a legal pretext to pursue martial law and a diplomatic means of getting consent from the American populace to do unpopular things in the name of security. But what is it about the Mexican flag that triggers so many people? I'd argue that in the American context, the Mexican flag is not a nationalist symbol but something decentered from Mexico as a nation-state. Historically, it was a key banner of the Chicano movement, flown by supporters surrounding Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez during the California grape boycott in the 1960s. It flew alongside the United Farm Workers flag, the American flag and banners of the Virgen de Guadalupe as means of fomenting cultural unity. It also served as a reminder of a fundamental truth: we are from here; we are also from there. We're children of the in-between, or what the Tejanx writer Gloria Anzaldúa referred to as nepantla in her seminal work Borderlands/La Frontera. Nepantla is simply Nahuatl for the liminal space between cultures, identities and worlds. To this end, we might think of the Mexican flag as a symbol of double-consciousness in the Mexican American psyche specifically. We understand our middleness, yet we also understand how America sees and defines us: Mexicans. We take that prejudice and transform it into power. It's through this lens that I see the Mexican flag as just one banner among many, a remembrance of roots but also a shared experience between Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants alike. Night after night, you can see captivating scenes with Mexican flags flying in the downtowns of Dallas and Houston and Atlanta and New York, as a solidarity grows between those explicitly targeted by Ice and those soon-to-be targeted by Ice. This is not hyperbole. Today, phenotype and politics are grounds enough for detention: in order for Ice to meet the Trump administration's goal of 3,000 arrests per day, targets have increasingly included student protesters, tourists and even American citizens. The only rule is to meet the metric at all costs. Amid these burgeoning protests, the Mexican flag is a bold articulation: we are like you; you are like us. We have struggled and persist in this place together. See me and don't be afraid; I see you and I am not afraid. To wield the flag amid a protest is to paint yourself a target, to take both your body and your future into your own hands. This is precisely why the Marines have been called in. To intimidate these bodies. Or to destroy them. What Trump fails to realize is that the bones of Mexican people are the metadata of the land in California and indeed the rest of the country. Our place here is in the food, in the street names, in the name of Los Angeles itself. Already, I can hear some within my own community admonishing my defense of Mexican flags at American protests as treasonous or ungrateful or something along those lines. To them I might ask: why is it that the protester's allegiances are held to higher standards than an American president who seeks to turn the US armed forces against American citizens? From Republican leaders, you'll never hear such questioning rhetoric surrounding other foreign flags that fly prominently in America. The Irish flag on St Patrick's Day instantly comes to mind. As does the Israeli flag at both political and non-political events. And, of course, the Confederate flag, though white supremacists have explicitly stated goals of both overthrowing the US government and taking back US land. Heritage is the most commonly used defense. Though wouldn't heritage apply to the Mexican flag as well? I'm reminded of James Baldwin when Mexicans Americans and Mexicans call for restraint from using Mexican imagery in US protests: 'In Harlem,' Baldwin wrote, '…the Negro policemen are feared more than whites, for they have more to prove and fewer ways to prove it.' We think our respectability will protect us. But we know historically and empirically that has not been true. Respectability did not protect Japanese Americans from being interned. Nor did it protect Vietnamese veterans who fought alongside Americans in Vietnam from facing discrimination in the US. Nor did it protect Afghan translators from having their visas revoked. Our American bonafides are not the things that will save us now. Not in the era of detention metrics and collateral targeting and now the prospect of authoritarian violence. It should be said: I don't go looking for these images. For my sins, having clicked on one, the algorithm floods me with them now. Protesters with Mexican flags getting a haircut in front of police. Protesters with Mexican flags forming a human chain. They just keep coming to me. But other images, too. Like one of a guy popping a wheelie past a ton of burning Waymo cars. I mean, come the fuck on – it's cool. The thing that immediately jumps out to me is the frivolity of the image. A body perfectly in balance, perfectly in motion. It moves of its own volition. It is completely in command of its trajectory and space in the landscape. It is beyond the fascist impulse to live so beautifully as this. Luckily, it also is beyond the fascist ability to remove the memory of this body from the land.
Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
ICE raids and riots leave young white Americans mocked for their dramatic take on protests
Social media influencers have been roasted for their eerily similar responses to the LA riots and immigration raids. Anti-ICE protests have swept the nation since agents first conducted raids in Los Angeles on Friday, sparking viral clashes between officers in riot gear and protesters who set vehicles on fire. Critics blasted the dozens of young Americans who posted messages shamming those who have not spoken out against the issue and called others who support Donald Trump or ICE 'bad people.' 'If you're white and see an ICE raid happening and you don't get involved, I think you're a p***y, and I don't respect you at all,' one influencer said. 'If you support ICE, if you support this current administration, if you think anything that's going on in the U.S. is good for the country, I don't think you're very pretty, and I don't think you're very smart,' said Miami influencer Sydney Michelle. One woman even said she was ashamed to have purchased a shirt with an American flag on it. 'I accidentally bought an American flag shirt today, and I'm gonna go return it because I wasn't even thinking,' she said. 'With what's going on in our country right now... trash... I'm not wearing that. People are literally getting seized and deported without the freaking due process.' Others have compared being an illegal immigrant in the United States to a minor traffic offense. 'Being undocumented is not a criminal offense; it's a civil one, and if you've ever jaywalked, congratulations, you've also committed a civil offense,' mommy influencer Allison Kuch said. Another influencer almost parroted that message, saying, 'Being in a country that you're in illegally is a civil offense, not a criminal one. You know what else is a civil offense, jaywalking.' Critics were quick to blast the influencers for posting their dramatic takes and pointed out their messages are all suspiciously similar. 'Morons on TikTok,' one person said. 'They're like all manure,' said another. 'I miss the days when not everyone had an internet connection,' a third person said. 'I always love their false equivalencies,' said a fourth. 'Thank you for repeating the same falsehood-laden NGO statements we've seen from dozens and dozens of other social media accounts. Yawn,' a fifth person said. 'The best immigration policy is articulated from the front seat of your car into your camera phone for online attention,' a sixth person said. 'Struggle session. It reminds me of the "Imagine" celebrities during COVID,' said another. 'This is when you think you're a trailblazer and on the cutting edge when you're really just another follower,' a seventh person said. While physical presence in the United States without proper authorization is a civil violation, entering the country illegally is a federal criminal offense, according to the American Immigration Council. Illegal entry includes crossing the border at a time or place not designated by immigration officers, eluding inspection by officers, or entering with false information such as fake documents. Title 8 of the U.S. Code states that the first offense of illegally entering the country is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison. Illegally re-entering the country after previously being deported is a felony with a maximum sentence of up to two years.
Daily Mail
39 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Labour's Jonathan Reynolds 'hopeful' US-UK deal on car tariffs will FINALLY be in place in days - with Britain 'ready to go' once Donald Trump gives the green light
Britain's deal with America to reduce tariffs on UK car exports could finally be implemented within days, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds signalled today. More than a month ago, on 8 May, PM Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump struck an agreement in the wake of the US President imposing sweeping trade tariffs across the world. The two leaders struck a 'cars for agriculture' deal that would see tariffs on British automotive and steel exports to the US slashed. This was in exchange for greater access to UK markets for American goods such as beef and ethanol. But the agreement is still yet to be implemented amid claims the two sides are still negotiating over the section of the deal affecting British steel exports. Mr Reynolds this afternoon insisted Britain was 'ready to go' as soon as the US President gives the green light on the deal. He told reporters at a Westminster lunch event: 'We are ready to go on our side. 'In terms of the steps I need to take, I will inform the House [of Commons] with a written ministerial statement and lay the statutory instruments for the reciprocal part of that deal, which is obviously about beef and ethanol for us on this side. 'So we're ready to go, and as soon as the President and the White House on their side are able to, we will implement that part of the deal.' The Business Secretary added he was 'very hopeful' the agreement could be implemented by the end of this week. Sir Keir is soon due to meet with Mr Trump at the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada, which begins on Sunday. Earlier this week, Mr Reynolds met with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick in London, with the PM also dropping in on the meeting. He said: 'We have had - again - a very significant week. We have not only had interactions this week... between ourselves and the US, and ourselves and China, we have been hosting talks between the US and China.' Mr Reynolds added: 'Secretary Lutnick and I and the PM talked specifically about the execution of the automotive tariff reduction, the quota, which is part of our deal.' Along with 10 per cent tariffs on all British goods, Mr Trump earlier this year imposed 25 per cent levies on cars and steel. He later increased the tariff on steel to 50 per cent, but gave the UK a reprieve, keeping Britain's rate at 25 per cent until at least July 9. Under the broad terms of last month's UK-US agreement, the US will implement quotas that will effectively eliminate the tariff on British steel and reduce the tariff on UK vehicles to 10 per cent. Following Tuesday's meeting with Mr Reynolds and the PM, Mr Lutnick posted on X/Twitter: 'It was a pleasure to meet our great ally, the Prime Minister of the UK, at Downing Street. 'We agreed to implement our historic trade deal as soon as possible, starting with the agreed quotas for UK autos, and US beef and ethanol, becoming simultaneously active in the coming days.'
