Eastside Santa Barbara holiday parade canceled over fears of ongoing ICE raids

[ad_1] Traces of folklorico dancers, norteño musicians and lowrider bikers usually burst with cultural delight on the Milpas Road Vacation Parade on Santa Barbara’s Eastside.

However this 12 months, organizers canceled the occasion, which dates again a long time, amid fears of immigration raids as some fear that their presence on the parade — whether or not immigrant or not — might make them a goal.

“Though ICE raids could not dominate every day headlines, the menace to our Latino households documented or undocumented stays very actual,” Santa Barbara Eastside Society, which organizes the parade, stated in a press release.

“The presence of immigration enforcement in our area, the worry it generates, and the uncertainty households proceed to face are actual, fast, and deeply felt.”

For many years, the parade, initially scheduled this 12 months for Dec. 13, had been a trademark celebration of the largely Latino group in Santa Barbara’s Eastside.

The Trump administration has ramped up anti-immigrant rhetoric, narrowed authorized paths to immigration and used photos of raids as a part of their social media technique. The impact has had a chilling impact on many immigrant communities and even amongst Individuals of Latino descent.

Parade organizers stated “many longtime individuals have shared that the extent of worry and vulnerability they're experiencing makes becoming a member of a big public occasion really feel unsafe.”

“We perceive why it’s essential to have so many joyful moments,” stated Jacqueline Inda, director of the Restorative Justice Schooling Heart at La Casa de La Raza in Santa Barbara, whose group, which helps immigrant households in worry of deportation or these arrested by federal immigration brokers, often participates within the parade.

This 12 months, they felt totally different.

“We all know there are lots of of individuals that aren't going out of their properties in the event that they [don’t] must due to the worry of being noticed, reported or recognized as an individual collaborating in a extra Latino or culturally delicate occasion the place they might usually achieve this with out hesitation,” Inda stated, noting that the reverberations of raids in July, in addition to those who don’t make the night information, proceed to wreak havoc on households divided.

Tere Jurado, the parade’s director, advised the Santa Barbara Unbiased that the “selection follows many weeks of listening, actually listening, to households, parade individuals, parade volunteers, native leaders and immigrant-rights companions who assist us perceive the lived experiences of our group.”