Fear of ICE raids leads Chicago to cancel annual Cinco de Mayo parade

By 
 April 15, 2025

The organizers of Chicago's annual Cinco de Mayo parade announced Thursday that it will be canceled this year because of fear that ICE will raid it, the Daily Mail reported

"Our people are scared," President of the Casa Puebla & Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce Hector Escobar said.

"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," he told ABC 7.

Chicago was raided by ICE shortly after Inauguration Day and illegal immigrants there know that the sanctuary city is still a target.

No confrontations

'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.

The issue is not the level of sponsorship but safety, he said.

'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."

The parade was also canceled from 2020 to 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, it was rerouted to avoid gang violence along the route that led to multiple arrests.

'At this point, we don't know what is going to happen next year,' Escobar said.

Empty churches

Some of the illegal immigrants have work permits due to the Biden administration's lax policies, but spots where day laborers generally go to find work have been deserted since the raids started, according to the Daily Mail.

Even some churches like St. Agnes of Bohemia Catholic Church have been empty, since the Trump administration has relaxed rules about where migrants may be searched for.

The administration claims to have deported 117,000 migrants in the first 70 days.

A marketing campaign urging migrants to self-deport has begun, since lower numbers of border encounters have made it harder to deport migrants who are already in the country and are harder to find.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson