‘They’re all worried’: Philly’s 2025 Carnaval de Puebla canceled over concerns of ICE operations

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Philadelphia’s Carnaval de Puebla has been canceled for 2025 over fears of potential operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The street festival is the largest Cinco de Mayo celebration on the East Coast, attracting an average of 15,000 attendees a year to South Philadelphia near the Italian Market, a hub for Latino-owned businesses in the metro area.

Hundreds of vendors, performers and artists were expected, but organizers said reports of increased ICE operations under President Donald Trump’s administration had people canceling their plans.

“People were calling in to say, ‘Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to make it,’” said event committee member Olga Renteria. “Especially when people are coming from California, Chicago, Mexico. Entire families are coming, so they don’t want to be separated.”

Planning for 2026’s Carnaval de Puebla is also on hold, Renteria said, and other events centered around Philadelphia’s Latino community are not happening.

Renteria said she’s heard reports of businesses within the nearby Italian Market shuttering over fears of detainment and deportations, which could impact the economic development made by the immigrants within Philadelphia and the labor force.

“The Italian Market was kind of like abandoned, but then the Mexican people, the communities, Latino communities started building. They started making their businesses there,” Renteria said. “So now it’s like we’re going backward. People are starting to leave.

Carnaval de Puebla was previously canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in 2017 due to an increase in deportations during Trump’s first administration.

“Hopefully, things will get better,” Renteria said. “Asking the people to still go to the Latino businesses, this is how we will get through it. We will survive.”

In January, seven people were detained during an ICE operation conducted at a car wash in North Philadelphia, the first of its kind reported in the city since the start of the second Trump administration. In February, several people were detained by ICE in Chester County.