This week, organizers of Chicago's annual Cinco de Mayo parade canceled festivities over concerns about deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "Our people are scared," said Hector Escobar, president of the Casa Puebla and Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce.
Unfortunately, the fears of Chicago's Mexican community may be warranted. In the first 50 days of President Donald Trump's second administration, ICE boasted 32,809 arrests, just four hundred shy of all arrests made in 2024. Under the direction of Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, sanctuary cities like Chicago have been the target of enhanced ICE operations, which have already included the improper or warrantless arrests of at least 22 individuals in Illinois.
Homan has also threatened to prosecute Brandon Johnson, the city's Democratic mayor, if he obstructs ICE's mass deportation efforts by upholding the city's sanctuary policies. Meanwhile, federal lawmakers have investigated Johnson and other sanctuary city mayors for impeding federal law enforcement, despite legal precedent under which state and local governments cannot be compelled to enforce federal laws.
