Chicago has cancelled its Cinco de Mayo Parade, held annually in the sanctuary city, over fears of ICE raids.
Organizers announced on Thursday that the parade, which was set to be held on the Southwest Side of the city next month, has been cancelled as Trump’s war on illegal immigrants has sparked fear across the country.
‘Our people are scared,’ said Hector Escobar, President of the Casa Puebla & Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce.
Escobar told ABC 7: ‘See, some of them, they don’t even want to go to work and some of them, they’ve taken a high risk. And definitely, it’s not much to celebrate.’
The fifth of May festivities originally celebrated the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.
Activists then later rediscovered the holiday and transformed its meaning into a day of ethnic pride, and now it resonates with many as a celebration of Mexican American culture.
Chicago became a target of the Trump Administration very early on in the President’s second term.
Soon after Inauguration Day, the sanctuary city saw one of the first big raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Organizers of Chicago’s Cinco de Mayo Parade next month announced on Thursday that the parade is cancelled as Trump’s war on illegal immigrants has caused fear across the country
Efforts to deport illegal immigrants crawled their way from the city into the suburbs and has left many concerned for their safety. ‘We don’t want to have any confrontation or having people taken away from the festival, from the parade to custody,’ Escobar said
‘Our people are scared,’ said Hector Escobar, President of the Casa Puebla & Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce. The fifth of May celebrates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862 and now resonates as a celebration of Mexican American culture
Efforts to deport illegal immigrants crawled their way from the city into the suburbs and left many concerned.
‘We don’t want to have any confrontation or having people taken away from the festival, from the parade to custody,’ Escobar told the outlet.
‘We could have done it with the 50% of the sponsorship, which is great, but it’s not, again, about money. It’s just more about safety,’ he continued.
This isn’t the first time the parade needed to be cancelled, after it wasn’t held from 2018 to 2022 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Disagreements between organizers and city officials equally impacted the parade.
Last year, gang violence ended up resulting in multiple arrests as conflict broke out and the parade was forced to reroute.
‘At this point, we don’t know what is going to happen next year,’ Escobar said.
They are hoping that the parade can go ahead next year but are prepared to cancel should the deportation efforts remain rampant or increase.
This isn’t the first time the parade needed to be cancelled, after it wasn’t held from 2018 to 2022 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Disagreements between organizers and city officials equally impacted the parade
Chicago became a target of the Trump Administration very early on in the President’s war on migrants. Soon after Inauguration Day, the sanctuary city saw one of the first big raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Trump’s ‘border czar’ Tom Homan revealed in December that Chicago would be one of the first cities hit by the ICE raids.
Homan, the former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, laid out his plans to remove migrants who illegally crossed the southern border.
‘Chicago is in trouble because your mayor sucks and your governor sucks,’ Homan told the crowd at the Northwest Side GOP holiday party where attendees included Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Homan also warned Johnson, who had vowed to fight the Trump administration’s deportation plan, not to ‘impede’ his efforts.
‘If he doesn’t want to help, get the hell out of the way,’ Homan said.
‘If he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien – I will prosecute him.’
‘My goal is to enforce the law, but if you put yourself in that position, it may happen,’ the border czar said at the time. ‘But there’s no plan in this administration right now to separate families.’
‘However, we’re going to enforce the law. So, if you put yourself in that position, it’s on you,’ he said, declaring that parents of Dreamers – the children of migrants born in the United States – have two options.
Trump’s ‘border czar’ Tom Homan revealed in December that Chicago would be one of the first cities hit by the ICE raids
‘You can either take a child home with your or they just stay here,’ Homan said. ‘But you don’t get a pass.’
He also said those who do not qualify for asylum through the courts system would be ordered to be deported.
‘If we don’t, what the hell are we doing? Shut down immigration court?’ he asked, rhetorically.
‘There’s no more consequences. We have to remove them if the law requires.’
Many factories, warehouses and grocery stores were seen eerily quiet in January amid fears of deportations.
Only 10 out of the usually 40 to 50 migrant workers attended their shifts at a factory in Joliet, Illinois, in late January, as six federal agencies swept the Greater Chicago area for ‘potentially dangerous criminal aliens’.
Locals claimed a Home Depot parking lot that is normally packed with day laborers seeking work was ‘eerily quiet’ with men standing around.
Sunday mass at Chicago’s St. Agnes of Bohemia Catholic Church was also unusually empty at the time, parishioners claimed, likely because the Trump Administration relaxed rules governing enforcement actions at ‘sensitive’ locations such as schools, churches and workplaces.
Social media is flooding with reports of empty factory parking lots, doctor’s office waiting rooms, grocers and big box stores, such as Walmart, in wake of Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Just in the first few weeks of the efforts, the administration reported a staggering 6,000 deported migrants.
