CNN Commentator Defends Rioters Waving Foreign Flags: ‘All Of The Southwest Is Mexico’

A commentator on CNN defended the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles, claiming that California and the Southwest region of the United States once belonged to Mexico.

“It is almost 50 percent Hispanic. Remember that California was part of Mexico, all of the Southwest is Mexico,” former Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas said on CNN while discussing the protests and riots against ICE. “The roots are really deep in that region, and what they’re saying is ‘no, not in our community.’”

UNHINGED: Former Univision anchor María Elena Salinas on CNN defending the rioting in Los Angeles:

“California was part of Mexico, all of the Southwest is Mexico.” pic.twitter.com/Ue1cHMXtl9

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 10, 2025

Salinas’ comments come after days of violence in Los Angeles, with left-wing agitators throwing fireworks and rocks at law enforcement and lighting self-driving taxis on fire.

🚨🚨 BREAKING POLICE HORSE BACK UNIT HIT WITH MASSIVE FIREWORK – MAJOR POLICE PUSH

I am on the ground at the LA riots. This work is dangerous PLEASE FOLLOW pic.twitter.com/E3ESUGWk6t

— Cam Higby | America First 🇺🇸 (@camhigby) June 9, 2025

Several organizations behind the Los Angeles protests have argued that Mexico has a legitimate claim to California and the broader American Southwest, The Daily Wire revealed. Some even deny the legitimacy of the United States and want Mexico to reconquer the Southwestern states.

An organization called Centro CSO pushes for “Chicano self-determination” and flies the flag of Aztlan, the mythical homeland of the Aztecs, which has been used as a symbol by political activists who deny America’s claim to the states it won in the Mexican-American War.

One organizer with Centro CSO appeared to call for violence against federal law enforcement while speaking to a crowd of leftwing agitators.

“They’re going to find out that we don’t play games out here,” the man, identified as Sammy Carrera, said, “We’re no longer going to be on the defense, we’re going to take the fight to them.”

One far-left organizer behind the Los Angeles protests called on the agitators to ‘take the fight’ to ICE.

“We’re no longer going to be on the defense, we’re going to take the fight to them.” pic.twitter.com/ekPNgeS9qn

— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) June 10, 2025

Union del Barrio, an equally radical group, also joined the protests. The race-based organization calls America an “illegal settler nation” and fights against “European colonialism” and the “Anglo settler.”

The organization refers to the American Southwest as occupied Mexico and calls for international racial unity across the North and South American continents “to overturn all manifestations of colonial, imperialist, and neoliberal oppression” and reclaim the states won by the United States in its war with Mexico.