Left Claims LA Belongs to Mexico, Not America

“This is our city and this was Mexico!”

That’s the viral quote from a protester caught on video in the middle of the Los Angeles riots, a clip that has now been viewed nearly nine million times on X. While it would be easy to dismiss the statement as a one-off, it’s indicative of a broader narrative now gaining steam on the left: America doesn’t really belong to Americans.

It’s not just random left-wing activists who are pushing this narrative. Pop star Katy Perry recently posted on her Instagram story that LA was “founded by Mexican settlers in 1781.” Perry further claimed that LA was “once Mexican land, and the people being targeted today are often descendants of those who have lived here for generations.”

The president of Mexico’s Senate also recently suggested that Mexico should reclaim large swaths of U.S. land – simply because some cities have Mexican names. He even held up a map of pre-1830 Mexican territory, implying that the U.S. Southwest is still rightfully theirs.

It’s the kind of sentiment that would earn applause in a college ethnic studies seminar and ridicule in any serious history class.

First of all, according to the left’s rules, Los Angeles was never really Mexican land. As liberals so often remind us, the land that is now LA was originally populated by Native American tribes. So, if we’re playing the stolen land game, Mexican settlers were no less “colonizers” than the Europeans — just wearing different colors.

Moreover, the notion that LA was founded by “Mexican settlers” is itself historically inaccurate. As anthropologist Robert Sepehr noted on X, the city was in fact founded by Filipe de Neve y Padilla – a Spanish military officer. In other words, LA was part of a European empire. De Neve’s primary motivation, Sepehr says, “was to solidify Spain’s claim over the territory.”

As any U.S. history book will tell you, the Treaty of Cahuenga in 1847 ended the Mexican-American War and transferred California – and LA – to the United States. That’s how history works. Mexico lost. The U.S. won. Nations throughout time have gained or lost land through war and negotiation. That doesn’t make every modern border illegitimate. It makes them real.

But historical inaccuracies aside, here’s where the deeper danger lies: What we’re witnessing in Los Angeles is not just a riot – it’s a declaration of ideological secession. These aren’t simply protests against deportations or ICE raids. This is about a radical faction claiming they do not recognize the United States’ authority at all.

The rioters wave Mexican flags because they want Mexico – or something like it – to replace America. They are, in the literal definition of the word, colonizers. They have entered a sovereign nation and now demand to reshape it in their own image, under a different authority.

The same dynamic is at work when we see pro-Hamas protesters blanketing American college campuses with terrorist flags, demanding the abolition of borders and the destruction of Israel and the U.S. alike.

Democrats’ silence in the face of this anti-American crusade is deafening. Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass are siding with the agitators, not the federal government. Both have implied that President Trump has no authority to deploy the National Guard or enforce immigration law in their “sanctuary” jurisdictions. Their message is the same as that of the rioters: this land is not really under the control of the United States.

This is the logical endpoint of the left’s sanctuary city movement, of their ethnic grievance politics, and of their belief that America itself is fundamentally illegitimate. They don’t recognize laws they disagree with. They don’t think borders matter. And they’re not interested in assimilation.

They are waving foreign flags on American soil while rejecting the authority of the duly elected President of the United States and U.S. Congress. It’s an open act of constitutional subversion that should alarm every American.

The left, blinded by historical ignorance and fueled by a cocktail of guilt and resentment, has now mainstreamed the belief that the United States is an occupying force in its own cities. They say this land was stolen – but apparently only when white Europeans took it.

The historical reality the left refuses to acknowledge is that land ultimately belongs to those willing to conquer it and defend it. That has always been true throughout human history, and it remains true today. Native tribes constantly fought and displaced one another long before Europeans ever showed up. The Revolutionary generation won the war with Britain to form the United States –conquering land from a European empire. California became American land through the same means. That is not up for debate.

What is up for debate – and rapidly reaching a boiling point – is whether America has the will to defend its territory and uphold its laws in the face of open insurrection.

For this reason, Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard was not only justified – it was essential. When activists, celebrities, and foreign governments are openly calling for the reversal of American sovereignty over its own cities and denying the right of authorities to enforce federal law, it’s no longer about immigration policy. It’s about whether the United States is going to exist as a nation at all.

Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.