PILSEN — Organizers of a long-standing Latino pageant that begins Thursday have a message for federal immigration authorities: “Keep out of group festivals.”
The 53rd version of Fiesta del Sol, organized by native nonprofit Pilsen Neighbors Neighborhood Council, runs Thursday-Sunday alongside West Cermak Highway between South Ashland and Morgan avenues.
The occasion is anticipated to attract over 1.2 million folks to get pleasure from stay music, leisure, native meals distributors, carnival rides, artwork exhibitions and extra actions in Pilsen.
Organizers, area people leaders and elected officers stated Monday they’re fearful immigration authorities may present up unannounced to the pageant and different cultural occasions and group celebrations.
Fiesta del Sol organizers have been working since January with native immigration rights teams to guard pageant goers’ rights and inform neighbors, they stated throughout a press convention Monday.
“ICE is consistently adopting new techniques and they’re abducting extra folks than ever. It’s no secret that they’re specializing in parks and public areas,” stated Brandon Lee, communications director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Final month, U.S. Division of Homeland Safety brokers made a shock go to to the Nationwide Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Tradition days earlier than its cultural pageant, Barrio Fest. Two massive Latino cultural celebrations anticipated to attract crowds to the world had been set to start out in weeks after.
The company denied that its brokers visited the museum for immigration enforcement actions. Homeland Safety press secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated in a press release officers had been there for a quick assembly “prematurely of an enforcement motion associated to a narcotics investigation.”
After the unannounced go to, elected officers, organizers and immigration rights advocates vowed to face as much as “intimidation” from federal immigration brokers, saying they aren’t welcome in Chicago.
Fiesta del Sol organizers bolstered that message Monday. Neighborhood celebrations like Fiesta del Sol must be “locations of pleasure – not locations of concern,” organizers stated in a press launch.
Speaking to reporters at an unrelated media briefing Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson stated his administration will proceed to face agency to guard undocumented and immigrant households who “play an unbelievable position within the soul of Chicago” and resist the Trump administration’s efforts “to deliver division and concern.”
“We’re prepared. We’re a welcoming metropolis. We’re going to carry agency to our place,” Johnson stated.
This 12 months’s Fiesta del Sol will characteristic an immigration and citizenship expo, the place group organizations and authorized service suppliers from throughout Chicago will share immigration info and provide authorized help, in line with Fiesta del Sol’s web site.
Fiesta del Sol is 3-10 p.m. Thursday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Admission is free.
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