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Facebook video shows man burning American flag near South Texas immigration rally

In a video shared on Facebook, an unidentified shirtless man wearing camouflage pants approaches the camera with the flag and a hand-held torch.
Credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
The American Flag waves before a game between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Tulane Green Wave on September 17, 2005 at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Corpus Christi Indivisible distanced itself Saturday night from a video posted on social media depicting a man burning an American flag toward the end of its immigration rally.

In the Facebook video, an unidentified shirtless man wearing camouflage pants approaches the camera with the flag and a hand-held torch.

Throughout the video, he burns holes in the flag, while others come and appear to help him.

The video was shot at Corpus Christi's Cole Park, the site of a day-long Families Belong Together immigration rally.

Late Saturday, Tomahawk E. Alvarado, who posted the video on his Facebook page, told the Caller-Times he would have a statement later about it, but that, in the meantime, "many are blowing it out of proportion."

Mary Alice Gonzalez, group leader for Corpus Christi Indivisible and the rally's organizer, said she did not invite the man or the other men seen helping him burn the flag.

Gonzalez said the organization didn't condone flag burning and was concerned the display would take away from the rally's message.

"That was not a part of our agenda," she said. "Our purpose was to talk about the families, not burning the flag ... or making it a political rally."

Corpus Christi was one of 34 Texas cities and one of 600 others around the country to protest against the Trump Administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy. The controversial policy called for illegal immigrants to be separated from their children as they entered the United States.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday halting the practice.

The event drew about 200 people to Cole Park, a public city park on Corpus Christi's bayfront

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