Event organizers for Chicago’s Cinco de Mayo parade have canceled this year’s festivities over fears Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers might attend and round up attendees for deportation.
The planners placed the blame squarely on President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, which they claim have created trepidation in the migrant community despite their popularity among U.S. voters.
“Our people are scared. It’s not much to celebrate,” Hector Escobar — president of the Casa Puebla & Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce, which was helping to organize the Mexican parade — told ABC 7 Chicago.
Escobar said that some people in his community do not even want to go to work because they worry that they might encounter ICE officers. He admitted that he was fearful of creating an opportunity for ICE actions through the gathering, adding, “We don’t want to have any confrontation or having people taken away from the festival, from the parade to custody.”
Escobar noted that half of the event’s sponsors had already signaled their reluctance to participate this year before planners decided to cancel the cultural celebration.
“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 the safety,” he said.
Escobar added that he and fellow community leaders are operating on the assumption that the gathering will return next year but are not 100 percent sure that it will.
The Chicago Police Department canceled the Cinco de Mayo parade in 2024 due to gang violence, including gunshots fired along the route, though the event eventually resumed in a different area. Police said they arrested 25 people during last year’s incident, including some “gun arrests.”
The parade was not held between 2018 and 2022 due to COVID and internal disputes between organizers. For example, the gathering was canceled in 2018 after Escobar and his fellow planners had a spat with the area’s alderman, the 12th Ward’s George Cardenas, Breitbart News reported.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, X at WTHuston, or Truth Social at @WarnerToddHuston.
Read the full article here
