{"id":206382,"date":"2025-09-07T01:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T01:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/206382\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T01:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T01:13:13","slug":"immigration-enforcement-threats-loom-over-chicago-mexican-independence-day-festivities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/206382\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration enforcement threats loom over Chicago Mexican Independence Day festivities"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s plan to dispatch National Guard troops and immigration agents<\/a> into Chicago has put many Latino residents on edge, prompting some to carry their U.S. passports while giving others pause about openly celebrating the upcoming Mexican Independence Day. <\/p>\n

Though the holiday falls on Sept. 16, celebrations in Chicago span more than a week and draw hundreds of thousands of participants. Festivities kicked off with a Saturday parade through the heavily Mexican Pilsen neighborhood and will continue with car caravans and lively street parties. <\/p>\n

But this year, the typically joyful period coincides with Trump\u2019s threats to add Chicago to the list of other Democratic-led cities he has targeted for expanded federal enforcement.<\/p>\n

His administration has said it will step up immigration enforcement in Chicago, as it did in Los Angeles<\/a>, and would deploy National Guard troops<\/a>. In addition to sending troops to Los Angeles<\/a> in June, Trump deployed them last month in Washington, D.C., as part of his unprecedented law enforcement takeover<\/a> of the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

Trump posted an illustration<\/a> of himself against a Chicago-skyline ablaze with flames and helicopters on Truth Social on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cChicago about to find out why it\u2019s called the Department of WAR,\u201d he posted, along with \u201cI love the smell of deportations in the morning,\u201d referencing a 1979 war film. Trump has ordered the Defense Department to be renamed the Department of War<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city,\u201d Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote on the social platform X. \u201cIllinois won\u2019t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although details about the promised Chicago operation have been sparse, there\u2019s already widespread opposition<\/a> as protesters marched through downtown on Saturday evening. State and city leaders have said they plan to sue the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Mixed feelings about postponing festivities<\/p>\n

The extended Mexican Independence Day celebrations reflect the size and vitality of Chicago\u2019s Mexican American community. Mexicans make up more than one-fifth of the city\u2019s total population and about 74% of its Latino residents, according to 2022 U.S. Census estimates.<\/p>\n

Parade and festival organizers have been divided over whether to move forward with precautions or postpone, in hopes that it will feel safer for many participants to have a true celebration in several months\u2019 time. El Grito Chicago, a downtown Mexican Independence Day festival set for next weekend, was postponed this week by organizers in order to protect people. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut also we just refuse to let our festival be a pawn in this political game,\u201d said Germ\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez, an organizer of El Grito Chicago.<\/p>\n

In Pilsen and Little Village, two of the city\u2019s best-known neighborhoods with restaurants, businesses and cultural ties to Mexican culture, residents expressed disappointment that the potential federal intervention instilled such fear and anxiety in the community at a time usually characterized by joy, togetherness and celebration of Mexican American heritage.<\/p>\n

Celebrating, but with precautions<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, some parade-goers grabbed free, bright-orange whistles and flyers from volunteers standing outside the Lozano Branch of the Chicago Public Library. \u201cBlow the whistle on ICE!\u201d the flyers read, encouraging a nonviolent tactic to raise alarm if they saw agents.<\/p>\n

Marchers held up cardboard signs painted with monarch butterflies, the migratory species that travels between the U.S. and Mexico. Many cheered \u201cViva Mexico!\u201d <\/p>\n

Drivers of vintage cars honked their horns and a drummer kept time for a group of dancers bedecked in feathers. Horseback riders clip-clopped down the street, and one lifted up a large Mexican flag.<\/p>\n

Claudia Alvarez, whose 10-year-old daughter was nearby riding a pony, said it\u2019s important that politicians see people out celebrating, though the crowd seemed smaller this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt these hours you should be able to see plenty of people in the streets enjoying themselves, but now there\u2019s not really a lot of people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fabio Fernandez, 39, owner of an art and T-shirt company with a residency at a Pilsen streetwear shop, called it \u201ctroubling\u201d and \u201cdisheartening\u201d that the possibility of federal intervention has impacted celebrations.<\/p>\n

He said there\u2019s a mood of anxiety in the neighborhood, which has translated to lower sales and reduced foot traffic for local businesses like his, Fernandez said. <\/p>\n

\u201cCome back to 18th Street. Support small businesses here. They\u2019re still working hard as hell to keep their businesses alive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alejandro Vences, 30, became a U.S. citizen this year, \u201cwhich gives me some comfort during this time,\u201d he said while eating pozole verde at a local Mexican restaurant. Still, he said, the anxiety is palpable.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, our Independence Day has always been a celebration of our culture,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always been a celebration of who we are. It feels like we don\u2019t get to celebrate our culture in the same way.\u201d <\/p>\n

Protest against ICE<\/p>\n

A few miles away in downtown, more than a thousand protesters marched through the streets on Saturday evening with signs bearing slogans like \u201cI.C.E. out of Illinois, I.C.E. out of everywhere.\u201d <\/p>\n

Speakers offered the crowd instructions on what to do if encountering Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They also drew comparisons between the proposed ICE crackdown on Chicago and Israel\u2019s presence in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are inspired by the steadfastness of Palestinians in Gaza, and it is why we refuse to cower to Trump and his threats,\u201d Nazek Sankari, co-chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, said to the crowd as many waved Palestinian flags and donned keffiyehs. <\/p>\n

Viviana Barajas, leader with the community organization Palenque LSNA, promised that Chicagoans would \u201cstand up\u201d as Los Angeles had if Trump deploys the National Guard in their city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he thinks these frivolous theatrics to undermine our sovereignty will shut out the passion we have for protecting our people, this is Chicago, and he is sorely mistaken,\u201d Barajas said. \u201cWe have been studying LA and D.C., and they have stood up for their cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia and Raza reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writers Morgan Lee in Santa Fe and Cal Woodward in Washington contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s plan to dispatch National Guard troops and immigration agents into Chicago has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":206383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[113517,960,113520,69,113518,57,27383,5386,1819,1818,409,72794,8132,1571,80,2068,2065,61,113519,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-206382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-alejandro-vences","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-claudia-alvarez","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-fabio-fernandez","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-hispanics","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-il-state-wire","17":"tag-illinois","18":"tag-immigration","19":"tag-j-b-pritzker","20":"tag-military-and-defense","21":"tag-national","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","24":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","25":"tag-u-s-news","26":"tag-viviana-barajas","27":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115160364295512477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}