Philadelphia Cinco de Mayo parade canceled over immigration roundup fears

A Cinco de Mayo parade in Denver
(Image credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

Philadelphia's largest Cinco de Mayo parade has been canceled by organizers out of fear that the gathering would be targeted by federal immigration officials searching for illegal immigrants to deport. The annual event was expected to draw about 15,000 people from the Mexican-American community in Philly and surrounding areas.

The decision to cancel is "sad but responsible," said Edgar Ramirez, an organizer of El Carnaval de Puebla. "The group of six organizers decided to cancel unanimously. Everyone is offended by the actions of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]," he said, referencing recent reports of more active ICE enforcement activity. "We have people who travel all the way from Chicago, Connecticut, and New York," he added. "We don't want anything to happen to them."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.