Contreras told the Houston Press that he was disappointed to learn that another LULAC council, District 18, is planning to host an alternative event called the Freedom Parade. He won\u2019t be attending, and neither will Morales.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cICE is coming after anyone and everyone, and I hate for kids to be put in that situation,\u201d Morales says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former Houston ISD trustee Sergio Lira confirmed that LULAC District 18 is hosting a Freedom Parade from 10 a.m. to noon May 2 downtown near Houston City Hall. He said details are still being worked out and a press conference would be called this week.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to offer an alternative to the cancellation from the other district,\u201d Lira says. \u201cI\u2019m not privy as to why they decided not to [have the Cinco de Mayo parade], considering we have a lot of citywide events going on like Tejano Day at the rodeo, the FIFA World Cup, and Mexico playing at the baseball classic. We want to show unity and solidarity with the community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lira added that he hasn\u2019t seen any data to support that a Cinco de Mayo parade would be a \u201chigh-risk endeavor.\u201d He says high school marching bands and elected officials have been invited to participate in Freedom Day, and organizers are recruiting corporate sponsors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fear of ICE is real, but I haven\u2019t seen data on raids at major events,\u201d he says. \u201cI haven\u2019t had any concerns about arrests from ICE in our schools or churches here in the Houston area. Some folks have gone into the shadows but most folks are going about their business. You\u2019ve got to provide for your family. We weighed the benefits over the negatives, and now more than ever, we need to celebrate our culture and traditions and show the world we\u2019re not bad people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LULAC.jpg\")
LULAC District 18 is organizing an alternative event since the annual Cinco de Mayo parade was canceled. Credit: LULAC District 18<\/p>\n
ICE has not, to date, had a strong presence at Houston protests and parades, but that doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t happen, according to Contreras. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety of our children and their parents remains our highest priority,\u201d says Contreras, a native Houstonian who joined LULAC as a junior member when he was 14 years old. \u201cLULAC District VIII is not willing to put any child, family member, volunteer, or participant at risk for a parade \u2014 no matter how meaningful or celebrated the tradition may be.\u201d<\/p>\n
LULAC District VIII has hosted the Cinco de Mayo parade since 1994. It\u2019s been canceled before, during the COVID-19 pandemic, but never because of immigration concerns. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army\u2019s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are maybe 20 LULAC councils in Houston, and one of the members in our council is a teacher,\u201d Contreras says. \u201cMany of her students are immigrants and she said at least a couple have been deported and some are considering self-deportation for fear of being separated from their families. We think that the majority of the people who would be out there at the parade are people who are close to their heritage. They\u2019ll be at risk of being arrested or deported.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Morales says Cinco de Mayo is not just a parade. \u201cIt\u2019s culture,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s history. It\u2019s families on sidewalks waving flags. It\u2019s music, food, children dancing, abuelitas smiling, and generations remembering that we have always been here. When something like that is canceled, it feels bigger than an event. It feels personal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paralyzing Fear<\/p>\n
Thousands of people in Harris County were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2025, with 3,500 arrested in a regional sting<\/a> conducted in October and November. Eighty-five people with immigration-related warrants were identified by the Houston Police Department, according to Chief Noe Diaz. The Harris County Jail leads the nation<\/a> in ICE detainers \u2014 requests from immigration agents to hold a person for deportation \u2014 with more than 9,500 reported last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Deportation Data Project reports that ICE arrests in Texas increased by 135 percent during the first nine months of the second Trump administration compared with the same period in 2024, when Joe Biden was President.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s devastating for Harris County\u2019s Latino community, which accounts for about 45 percent of the population, Contreras says. While a fraction of the 2 million Latinos in Harris County are undocumented, the concern about being deported or detained extends to people of all ages, races and statuses, he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alfredo Dominguez, 29, grew up in Pasadena and moved to Houston after attending graduate school at Georgetown University. He\u2019s been to many Cinco de Mayo parades over the years and says the cancellation shows how helpless the Houston PD is in guaranteeing that its residents won\u2019t be detained or deported.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo community members, it communicates that we\u2019re under siege,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not that all the immigrants would have wanted to go celebrate Cinco de Mayo. It\u2019s that important programs have to get shuttered in favor of the federal agenda.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Through his work with the Peoples\u2019 Counsel<\/a>, an advocacy group for survivors of police violence, Dominguez has heard from many who believe ICE is taking a targeted approach in Houston, following people home from work, transferring them from jail to detention centers and arresting them at mandatory check-ins.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a growing concern that people are impersonating ICE agents or immigration attorneys to extort money from scared families, Dominguez says. Many undocumented immigrants are choosing to stay away from Cinco de Mayo celebrations and the FIFA World Cup, which has seven matches scheduled in June and July at Houston\u2019s NRG Stadium, he added.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAnytime there\u2019s a mass gathering of people, that\u2019s the highest risk for violence,\u201d Dominguez says. \u201cWithin these big groups of people, police officers and ICE agents can get intimidated because they\u2019re vastly outnumbered. It only takes one thing to happen for these things to go the Minnesota way<\/a>. That\u2019s what\u2019s terrifying for us. It hasn\u2019t happened in Houston yet, but the potential is there. It\u2019s a powder keg.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Morales works for the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation but is currently on disability leave while she recovers from hip surgery. She says the panic among Latinos in Houston has escalated in recent months to a situation where people are afraid to even leave their homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her advice in the short-term is not to go to any organized Cinco de Mayo events and use discretion when determining whether to attend rallies and protests like the upcoming No Kings<\/a> event on March 28.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the long term, she says, \u201chave a plan.\u201d Undocumented immigrants are encouraged to write important phone numbers on their bodies when they leave the house because if they are taken to a detention center, their cell phone will likely be confiscated.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA couple of days ago, we found out that HPD was taking what they call \u2018illegal immigrants\u2019 to ICE and dropping them off,\u201d Morales says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mayor John Whitmire and Chief Diaz held a press conference<\/a> last week and acknowledged that at least two officers on separate occasions violated department policy by transporting a person with a non-criminal immigration warrant to federal authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Morales says, \u201cWe\u2019re just living in a different world right now and we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. At 70 years old, I just went and got a passport. I\u2019ve never had a passport before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to go out,\u201d she added. \u201cThey\u2019re afraid. Evidence of that is that we\u2019re missing 4,000 students at HISD because they don\u2019t want to go to school. They\u2019re in fear. We\u2019re not living in sane times.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Dominguez, who was born in Houston, never leaves home without his driver\u2019s license. Contreras, a third-generation American citizen, says he gets stopped frequently because of his dark skin. His wife, who is light-complected, doesn\u2019t get questioned, he says. \u201cImmigrants, especially first-generation, are scared to death.\u201d<\/p>\n HPD Cooperation With ICE\u00a0<\/p>\n A new policy directive issued March 11 mandates that when HPD officers encounter a person with a non-criminal immigration warrant, they must call a sergeant to the scene. They can\u2019t transport someone based solely on the immigration warrant. If the sergeant determines that ICE should be contacted, the federal agents have 30 minutes to respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n Diaz says about 350,000 police reports were filed last year, and 220 were related to immigration issues. Of the 85 people HPD encountered with immigration warrants, 17 were taken into ICE custody and 20 were arrested, charged with \u201cother offenses\u201d and taken to the Harris County Jail, meaning more than half were released, according to Diaz.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mayor and police chief have said repeatedly that they have to follow the law under Senate Bill 4. HPD maintains that officers do not inquire about a person\u2019s immigration status. However, if they run someone\u2019s information and a warrant exists, they say they are required by law to pass that on to the appropriate agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n Diaz says that occasionally, people turn in their own spouses or flag down an officer to ask for help with self-deporting. \u201cIt\u2019s tough for everybody,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very sensitive topic. We\u2019re not insensitive to what is happening in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n The chief confirmed that immigration concerns extend beyond the Latino community. \u201cAnybody that you could think of that came over on a visa, if you\u2019re French, if you\u2019re from Asia, it affects everybody. It\u2019s not just our Spanish-speaking community that\u2019s affected,\u201d he said, later referencing the Haitian and Nigerian communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n President Donald Trump recently suggested ending humanitarian protections for more than 350,000 Haitians. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes blocked the effort, finding that the termination of \u201ctemporary protected status\u201d was likely motivated in part by racial prejudice and not a reasoned decision based on conditions in Haiti. U.S. Congressman Chip Roy, a candidate for Texas attorney general, has said<\/a> all Muslims who practice Sharia law should be deported.\u00a0<\/p>\n Regardless of whether the blame lies with Houston police, ICE or Donald Trump, Morales says there\u2019s no denying that people are afraid. Horror stories from former detainees at centers in Dilley and Conroe liken the facilities to maximum-security prisons or concentration camps.\u00a0<\/p>\n Officials with the Harris County Democratic Party who visited the Joe Corley ICE Processing Center in Conroe last month say they <\/strong>were told by facility employees that there are no windows and the detainees aren\u2019t permitted to go outside. Additionally, they were told that detainees are forced to wake up at 3 a.m., eat spoiled, frozen or undercooked meals, and have limited contact by phone with their attorneys or families.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TRAC-ICE-data.png\")
Data show that Texas has the most ICE detainees. Credit: Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HPD.jpeg\")
Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced last week additional oversight measures to an HPD policy for ICE warrants. Credit: April Towery<\/p>\n