Lines of folklorico dancers, norteño musicians and lowrider bikers normally burst with cultural pride at the Milpas Street Holiday Parade on Santa Barbara’s Eastside.
But this year, organizers canceled the event, which dates back decades, amid fears of immigration raids as some worry that their presence at the parade — whether immigrant or not — could make them a target.
“Although ICE raids may no longer dominate daily headlines, the threat to our Latino families documented or undocumented remains very real,” Santa Barbara Eastside Society, which organizes the parade, said in a statement.
“The presence of immigration enforcement in our region, the fear it generates, and the uncertainty families continue to face are real, immediate, and deeply felt.”
For decades, the parade, originally scheduled this year for Dec. 13, had been a hallmark celebration of the largely Latino community in Santa Barbara’s Eastside.
The Trump administration has ramped up anti-immigrant rhetoric, narrowed legal paths to immigration and used images of raids as part of their social media strategy. The effect has had a chilling effect on many immigrant communities and even among Americans of Latino descent.
Parade organizers said “many longtime participants have shared that the level of fear and vulnerability they are experiencing makes joining a large public event feel unsafe.”
“We understand why it’s important to have so many joyful moments,” said Jacqueline Inda, director of the Restorative Justice Education Center at La Casa de La Raza in Santa Barbara, whose group, which helps immigrant families in fear of deportation or those arrested by federal immigration agents, usually participates in the parade.
This year, they felt different.
“We know there are hundreds of people that are not going out of their homes if they [don’t] have to because of the fear of being spotted, reported or identified as a person participating in a more Latino or culturally sensitive event where they would normally do so without hesitation,” Inda said, noting that the reverberations of raids in July, as well as those that don’t make the evening news, continue to wreak havoc on families divided.
Tere Jurado, the parade’s director, told the Santa Barbara Independent that the “choice follows many weeks of listening, truly listening, to families, parade participants, parade volunteers, local leaders and immigrant-rights partners who help us understand the lived experiences of our community.”
In October, the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara canceled its Día de los Muertos parade, citing similar fears.
