‘We put safety over money’: Some cities are canceling cultural events due to fears of ICE raids and deportations

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN

(CNN) — For the past 45 years, Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood has celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a parade featuring Mexican bands, floats and dancers, and a festival at a local park.

But this year’s celebration, which attracts up to 300,000 people annually, has been canceled.

Chicago is among several communities across the country that have canceled or scaled back cultural events due to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

Event organizers said many Latinos, whether legal or undocumented, fear being arrested if they gather publicly in large crowds. Advocates also report that some are afraid to attend church, go to work or take their children to school.

Since January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has carried out raids in so-called “sanctuary” cities like Chicago, which limit cooperation with the federal government in enforcing immigration law.

Trump has also authorized ICE to target schools and churches, as well as deport undocumented immigrants for alleged gang ties, often based on limited evidence.

ICE has arrested nearly 66,500 undocumented immigrants and removed about 65,600 in the president’s first 100 days, according to newly released agency data.

“We don’t want to take a chance and put our community at risk,” Hector Escobar, president of the Casa Puebla and Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce, said. “It’s a loss economically, but we put safety over money.”

UnidosUs, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, found that 43% of Latino voters fear immigration authorities will arrest people, even if they are US citizens.

The city of Philadelphia also canceled its El Carnaval de Puebla festival this year, an annual event in April that celebrates Mexican culture.

Festival organizer Olga Renteria said people in the community were concerned that ICE officers might show up at the event and target attendees.

“We are not going to take a chance,” Renteria told CNN. “Everyone is being cautious, no celebrating, no big gatherings.”

In central Oregon, organizers have canceled the annual Latino Fest, which was scheduled for September in Madras.

Catalina Sánchez Frank, executive director of the Latino Community Association, said the event typically attracts 3,000 people and features parades, musical performances and booths representing different countries in Latin America.

Organizers feel compelled to protect the community from ICE, Frank said.

“It’s a celebration of joy, and when people are experiencing anxiety around possible fear of deportation, then we feel it’s more responsible and ethical to not celebrate this year,” Frank said.

Many immigrants came to the US seeking a safe haven that would allow them to work hard, provide for their families and live a better life, Frank said.

Now, those same people, some of whom are legal or have a pending citizenship case, fear they could be profiled, arrested and deported without due process, said Daniel Altamirano Hernandez, executive advisor of policy & partnerships for the Latino Community Association.

“It becomes an environment where folks are judging folks based on the color of their skin or the language that they use and that doesn’t necessarily correlate with someone’s immigration status,” Hernandez said. “So, if we can’t provide a genuine space to authentically celebrate our culture … then we can’t commit to the genuine mission of this festival.”

Clarissa Martínez De Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS, said it’s “understandable” that organizations are canceling cultural events to prioritize safety for their communities. De Castro said it remains unclear whether the Trump administration will respect the right to due process before deporting people.

UnidosUS is encouraging Latino Americans to be aware of their constitutional rights and to stand together if they are targeted by ICE, De Castro said.

She noted that 80% of Latinos living in the US are legal citizens.

“When the administration is taking actions that fail to distinguish, that sends a message to the community that the community as a whole is in the crosshairs for actions that, already, some courts have said are illegal,” De Castro said.

Juneteenth events are scaling back

The Latino community isn’t the only group scaling back its cultural and identity celebrations.

Annual Juneteenth events have also been downsized this year due to the Trump administration’s effort to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Reggie Johnson, president of the NAACP Metuchen Edison Piscataway Area Branch in New Jersey, said he had to move his organization’s annual Juneteenth celebration to a smaller location after staff at the federal site where it was previously held expressed uncertainty about hosting it there.

The staff was concerned that Juneteenth was considered a DEI event banned by the Trump administration, Johnson said.

“The contractors misinterpreted our event as a DEI initiative, so they didn’t want to risk having it and losing it because of Trump’s interpretation of Juneteenth,” Johnson said.

The federal staff called back five days later to say the Juneteenth event would be allowed, but by then, Johnson had already secured another space.

The new space is smaller and may not accommodate the 3,500 people that typically attend the event, Johnson said.

In Denver, the annual Juneteenth Music Festival has been reduced to a one-day event instead of two days after several major sponsors either pulled out or decreased their contributions this year.

Norman Harris, the festival’s lead organizer, said the loss of support was abrupt and came without a clear explanation.

It also came as many major companies rolled back their DEI programs earlier this year in response to conservative backlash.

Harris said he was “tremendously disappointed” to learn that he would have to downsize the music festival, which has been held since 2012. The event typically attracts roughly 30,000 people each year, he noted.

He said Juneteenth celebrations are critical for acknowledging the nation’s history and healing from the trauma some of that history has caused.

“I say this sincerely, that we are a community and one of our founding values is resilience and unity,” Harris said. “So, we thoroughly believe that we can overcome the challenges that we are facing. There have been generations of our communities that have dealt with so much more and have had to figure out how to support themselves without the support of outsiders.”

CNN’s Taylor Romine contributed.

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