Spectators wave Mexican flags as a rider on a white horse passes by during the Cinco de Mayo parade in Little Village on May 2024. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file
The annual Cinco de Mayo parade has been canceled, organizers announced Thursday.
The parade, which typically attracts hundreds to the Southwest Side, commemorates Mexico’s victory over Napoleon III’s French army in the Battle of Puebla in 1862.
However, the celebration was canceled because of fears over the Trump administration’s immigration policies, said Hector Escobar, president of Casa Puebla and the Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce.
“There is nothing to celebrate,” Escobar told the Sun-Times. “People are afraid. They’re afraid to even go to work.”
Escobar said organizers hope to host the parade next year, but not if President Donald Trump’s immigration policies don’t change.
“Our community is very frightened because of the raids and the threat that ICE has imposed on the families that work tirelessly to provide a better future for their kids,” organizers said in a statement.
Days after Trump took office in January, federal agents, with top administration officials and right-wing media personality Dr. Phil McGraw in tow,
arrived in Chicago for a series of targeted immigration arrests to fulfill the president’s promise to arrest and deport immigrants living in the country without legal status.
Trump has claimed they are targeting dangerous criminals, but attorneys working with detainees, and
a review of known cases, show many of those arrested did not have criminal records.
Escobar said he had already spoken to Chicago police about the necessary safety measures to host the parade. However, that would not ensure protection from possible immigration raids.
“It was a difficult decision to make, but the safety of our community is more important,” he said.
Last year,
the parade was rerouted and cut short after shots were fired along the parade route, resulting in multiple arrests. It also was not held from 2018 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated to correct that it was Napoleon III’s army that was defeated in the Battle of Puebla.
