{"id":298458,"date":"2025-10-12T23:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T23:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/298458\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T23:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T23:22:11","slug":"supporters-turn-out-for-marathon-despite-immigration-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/298458\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporters turn out for Marathon despite immigration fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

As first-time Chicago Marathon runner Natalia Diaz passed through the Pilsen neighborhood that once was home to several of her Mexican American family members, she stopped to greet those who had returned to support her in the race. They briefly took pictures and reflected on the increase in federal immigration enforcement efforts<\/a> in the city.<\/p>\n

Residents of the city and nation are \u201cliving in a crazy time we wouldn\u2019t have thought of in 2025,\u201d said Consuelo Arguilles, Diaz\u2019s aunt who was on 18th Street to support her niece.<\/p>\n

\"AimeAime Cabrera, of Las Do\u00f1as Run Club, cheers as runners in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon go by Oct. 12, 2025, on 18th Street in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Arguilles, said she was proud of Diaz, a freshman at Carthage College, explaining that it was important to represent their Mexican heritage.<\/p>\n

Overall support for runners in the 47th annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon<\/a> could be seen and heard throughout the race route, including as the runners headed east on 18th Street through Pilsen. Viewers yelled, celebrated and cheered on the sidewalks, marking a stark contrast to the more subdued than usual Mexican Independence Day Parade that rolled through the neighborhood in September.<\/a><\/p>\n

Local immigration advocates said the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago, as part of President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d immigration enforcement, affected how some runners<\/a> trained for the marathon and whether their families came out to support their efforts.<\/p>\n

Krystal, who requested to be identified by only her first name for safety reasons, is a member of Pilsen Unidos por Nuestro Orgullo, a coalition that advocates for the protection of immigrant rights. She said PU\u00d1O talked to members of local run clubs ahead of the race about how to stay safe during the marathon as immigration enforcement has ramped up.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople kind of started reaching out to me or I started reaching out also to run clubs to be like \u2018I think this is really important, this is impacting, not only the communities you run in, but your actual runners as well,\u2019\u201d Krystal said.<\/p>\n

\n

Photos: 2025 Chicago Marathon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cICE is terrorizing our city and sucking the joy out of everything. They shouldn\u2019t be here,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are causing a lot of fear and a lot of harm and that, of course, is impacting so many runners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the tips she said she offered runners was to utilize the buddy system and memorize emergency contact information as well as the number for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The coalition is a nonprofit advocacy organization.<\/p>\n

Run clubs around Chicago also posted tips ahead of the race about how to stay safe amid the increased ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency presence, and what to do in if they are stopped by federal agents.<\/p>\n

Aime Cabrera, 46, a member of the Las Do\u00f1as Run Club, cheered runners from sidewalks in Pilsen with other members of the run club. She said the club expected to have more participants in the marathon, but some dropped out because of the increase in ICE agents. The club was originally started as a walking club for moms.<\/p>\n

Edgar Rivera, the co-founder of Raza Run Club, said one of his club\u2019s goals is for people to be comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to feel safe when they run, and run with the community,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cAnd whether they\u2019re not training for a race, and they\u2019re just looking for people to run with, and find that community, we\u2019re here for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 12, 2025 at 5:41 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As first-time Chicago Marathon runner Natalia Diaz passed through the Pilsen neighborhood that once was home to several…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":298459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,136666,5410,5386,1818,409,65061],"class_list":{"0":"post-298458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicago-marathon","10":"tag-ice","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-pilsen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115363771251099147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298458","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=298458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}