Pittsburgh cancels International Parade as immigration anxieties remain

Pittsburgh has canceled its International Parade & Festival and the Pittsburgh World Cup amid concerns over a federal immigration crackdown.

The International Parade, typically a multicultural affair containing vendors and music, was declared a potential target for ICE immigration raids. The Pittsburgh World Cup was intended to be a community soccer tournament, hosted by the city’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, taking place over seven weeks and featuring players from immigrant communities in the city.

“We are living in a unique period of our country’s history,” the announcement on the City of Pittsburgh website said. “We cannot in good conscience carry out an event that has the potential to directly harm those who participate or exclude a portion of our immigrant residents.”

The parade was scheduled for June 28.

Fears of tougher immigration enforcement have been hovering since the Department of Homeland Security placed Pittsburgh on a list of 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” considered to be obstructing immigration enforcement by the Trump administration in May.

While the list was quickly removed after some backlash, local immigration lawyers say Pittsburgh remains under watch.

“You wouldn’t want to be an office of immigrant and refugee assistance and then throw a big party and have the government use it to arrest everybody that you’re supposed to be protecting,” Joseph Murphy, an immigration attorney, said.

Jaime Martinez, 23, community defense organizer of Casa San Jose, said the cancellation of the event was driven by “fear and trauma” linked to the federal government’s immigration policy.

“[It] is a painful loss for the community,” he said.

Gainey’s stance against ICE

In January, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey announced he would not work with ICE agents. He made this declaration at a PA Press Club event in Harrisburg after the Trump administration ramped up arrest quotas for ICE officers on Jan. 26.

“My administration will not work with ICE,” Gainey said in at the time. “We will do whatever’s necessary to make our city more welcoming. That’s what we’re built on.”

Since tensions grew in Los Angeles, following President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard during anti-immigration protests, Pittsburgh has held multiple demonstrations of its own. On Saturday, thousands of Pittsburghers joined people in cities across the U.S. in nationwide No Kings protest against the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

The concerns that led to cancellation

Rumors surrounding ICE’s whereabouts have popped up all over Pittsburgh. Local immigration and refugee organizations say their hotlines have been increasingly active over the last two weeks.

“This decision was made proactively, and not in response to any specific or active threats, with the well-being of our community at the forefront,” Olga George, a Gainey spokeswoman, said to TribLive on Friday.

“Some courts you’re seeing a lot of volume, a lot of constant surveillance, a lot of arrests happening, some are seeing none,” he said.

One concern vocalized in the local immigration and refugee community is possible dangers surrounding wellness checks on immigrant children without a legal guardian.

This is when the Department of Homeland Security will knock on the doors of homes and ask to speak with the child to make sure they aren’t being abused, said Murphy, the immigration lawyer.

“The concern when it first started was that it was a pretext to get in there and grab people. It doesn’t seem to have been used that way, but it was really kind of spooky,” he said.

Part of the reason these visits seem sinister, Murphy said, is because typically wellness checks are not conducted by Homeland Security but rather the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

“[ICE arrests] are being conducted in ways that are unnecessarily fear inducing. I believe that’s the plan, to create an environment of fear where nobody knows which way is up, where certain people are being grabbed and exported,” he said. “I believe [the goal] is to encourage large numbers of people to self-deport.”