Philly’s Carnaval de Puebla canceled amid fears ICE might target the Mexican cultural celebration

The Carnaval de Puebla, the big annual celebration of Mexican culture in South Philadelphia, has been canceled this year out of fear that ICE might target the event to make immigration arrests.

The festival was scheduled for April 27, and expected to draw the estimated 15,000 revelers who have made it one of the largest carnavals on the East Coast. Now many of those who planned to travel from as far as California and Mexico have told organizers they are not coming, concerned about President Donald Trump’s aggressive policies toward immigrants.

Olga Renteria, who serves on the carnaval committee and is active in Philadelphia’s Mexican community, said organizers had little choice, given the worries people expressed for themselves or undocumented family members.

“People don’t want to participate because of what’s going on,” she said Tuesday. “People worry if they show up for the carnaval and ICE is waiting for them.”

Organizers were also having trouble raising money to put on the event, officially known as El Carnaval de Puebla en Philadelphia, she said. While there are up-front costs associated with the daylong festival, it brings tourism dollars to Philadelphia as people from across the region and beyond come to enjoy food, dancing, and cultural and historical performances, she added.

“We didn’t want this to happen,” Renteria said, noting the carnaval has a nearly two-decade history, pausing during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s the most important day of the year, like Christmas, New Year’s. This is the Carnaval de Puebla — it’s like a family reunion.”

ICE officials in Philadelphia did not immediately reply to a request for comment. City officials declined to comment.

Trump has embarked on what he promises will be the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, with millions of migrants sent out of the country.

Since his administration began in January, reports of ICE activity have ricocheted across the region, driving anxiety in immigrant communities and causing some people to change their routines and daily lives.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made high-profile arrests at Philadelphia businesses in recent months, and the fear of detention and deportation has led some workers to stay away.

In late February, ICE agents arrested four undocumented Brazilian immigrants at the Jumbo Meat Market in Northeast Philadelphia. The previous month, the agency arrested seven employees during a raid at a North Philadelphia car wash. Meanwhile, stores in the famed Italian Market closed as undocumented employees stayed home from work amid rumors of impending ICE arrests.

In 2017, during the first Trump presidency, Philadelphia organizers of Carnaval de Puebla canceled the event for similar reasons, fearing that a large gathering of Mexican people could become a target for immigration enforcement actions.

“People are scared,” Edgar Ramirez, an organizing committee leader, said at the time. “The atmosphere is not good.”

In Philadelphia, an estimated 47,000 residents are undocumented, part of 153,000 statewide, with an additional 440,000 in New Jersey.

In mid-2023 the United States was home to about 13.7 million undocumented immigrants, an all-time peak, as calculated recently by the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. About 40%, an estimated 5.5 million people, are Mexican.

The numbers of undocumented migrants coming from many countries have only increased, but the Mexican population has ebbed and flowed, peaking at 7.8 million in 2007, MPI said in new research. It shrank after the Great Recession of 2008-09, hitting a low of 5.3 million in 2021, then increasing in 2022 and 2023.

That increase occurred because of economic instability in Mexico, even as the U.S. economy strengthened after the pandemic. Violence in Mexico also caused people to leave, MPI said.

While Mexican Carnaval is celebrated in slightly different ways throughout Mexico and the United States, Philadelphia’s version is modeled after those in Huejotzingo and San Mateo Ozolco, two cities in the state of Puebla. They include a reenactment of the battle in Puebla where the Mexican army repelled invading French forces in 1862, as well as other significant historical moments, like the country’s first Christian wedding in the 1500s.

Organizers now are trying to arrange a smaller, alternate event at the Tamalex Bar & Grill — and hoping this pause on the event won’t last four years.

“It’s truly unfortunate that the committee had to cancel this year’s event,” Renteria said in an email. “This tradition means so much to our community, and we’re hopeful that the situation will improve in the coming years so we can once again bring El Carnaval de Puebla back to Philadelphia.”