St. Paul’s Cinco de Mayo Parade goes on despite deportation fears

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - This weekend in St. Paul community members gathered for a Cinco de Mayo parade.

The backstory:

Amid ongoing federal efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, this year, Chicago and Philadelphia cancelled their Cinco de Mayo parades. But leaders in St. Paul made the decision to move ahead with plans in our capital city.

"I think this is one of the years that it’s most important to have this event," St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter told FOX 9. "We’re staying on the alert, obviously, we’re staying vigilant."

"We’ve been very clear that you’ll never see our St. Paul police officers serve as ICE agents, and that’s really critical to us as a community," Mayor Carter continued.

Before this year’s event, organizers told FOX 9 that at least 30 non-food vendors had backed out of the parade, citing concerns that fewer people would show up because of fears over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But on Saturday, plenty of people came out.

Parade attendees speak out

What they're saying:

Parade attendees told FOX 9 Saturday’s crowd rivaled the size of crowds in previous years.

"That’s always gonna be in the area. A lot of people get scared because everything is happening, but I think we’re safe," Cain Gurrola said.

"We’re not harming nobody, we’re just people. We just want to let everybody know that we’re together and nobody has to be afraid," Gurrola said.