In the age of ICE raids, the Latin holiday party proceeds with caution

from Deborah BrennanCalMatters

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On Friday night, organizers of a community holiday festival in San Marcos were busy planning a neighborhood parade and preparing trays of tamales for guests.

At the same time, they were training guards to monitor ICE activity in the low-income Hispanic area of ​​north San Diego County.

“We rely on the community,” said San Marcos Councilwoman Maria Nunez, who represents San Marcos Ward 1, where 55 percent of the voting-age population is Hispanic. “People are on alert. If they see something, hear something, if ICE is in the area, they’re going to let us know.”

Universidad Popular, a civic organization in North San Diego County, is sponsoring the event, called Posada Comunitaria, with a local church, Restoration Abbey. This is the third time they’ve held the event in San Marcos, but this year’s festivities took place amid concerns as immigration enforcement stepped up under the Trump administration.

The procession or posada traditionally reenacts the pilgrimage of Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem before the birth of Christ. In San Marcos, residents and organizers marched through the neighborhood, where affordable housing complexes are home to many immigrant families.

The event puts the Advent story in a modern context, said Alex Aguas, a priest at Restoration Abbey who helps asylum seekers.

“Posada’s practice really invites people to think about ‘what does it mean to be rejected?'” he said. “Or ‘what does it mean to be on edge and seek refuge and shelter in this moment?’ Plus, we just get to celebrate.”

As guests arrived and sipped cups of coffee and apple cider, security volunteers in hot pink vests huddled to discuss how to manage traffic control and keep an eye out for immigration agents.

“All our teams, all our pink vests here, are trained in response to immigration,” said Arcela Nunes, co-director of Universidad Popular and Maria Nunes’ sister. “We have people monitoring all points in this neighborhood.”

San Marcos, a city of 94,000 in northern San Diego County, appears to be responsible for only a few of the immigration arrests in the San Diego area. But government figures show the numbers have increased this year and organizers said they have seen more immigration activity recently.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested at least 38 people in San Marcos since September 2023, with 20 of those arrests made between June and October of this year, according to federal data provided by ICE in response to a FOIA request processed by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by CalMatters. CalMatters reached out to ICE, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to confirm the numbers, but did not hear back.

Escalating enforcement and a policy change that allows immigration enforcement in areas like churches and schools that were previously off-limits has created a chilling effect on some community activities. Arcela Nunez said her organization is debating whether to hold the event this year in light of those concerns. They decided to move forward, but proceed with caution.

Organizers were particularly attuned to possible reports of ICE activity at the San Marcos Home Depot, less than a mile away, where other immigration raids have taken place this year. Home Depot stores, where immigrant day laborers gather to look for work, have been targeted in Pomona, Los Angeles and Sacramento this year.

In October, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol arrested 22 people with criminal records at Home Depot locations in San Marcos and Encinitas, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Jason Givens said.

“If something happens, look for experienced security,” Flower Alvarez-López, co-director of the Universidad Popular, told about two dozen volunteers gathered in a circle. “We will be able to help you.”

Volunteers handed out candles to the participants, who lined up in a procession through the yard of an adjacent block. Musicians strummed guitars as several hundred singers serenaded residents with songs like “Noche de Paz” and “Letania para pedir posada,” which translates as a litany of pleas for accommodation.

Their next stop was El Palenque Taco Shop around the corner on San Marcos Boulevard. Organizers waved flashlights to direct marchers and steered cars around the crowd in the parking lot before leading the group a few doors down to La Michoacana Ice Cream.

Pilgrims made one more stop at an apartment complex before returning to the church, where families lined up for plates heaped with rice and beans, tamales, slices of pizza and concha, a Mexican sweet bread.

The event in San Marcos was uneventful, but it illustrated the tensions community leaders face trying to plan cultural celebrations while maintaining vigilance for potential immigration operations.

Ines Delgado, an immigration advocate at the North County LGBTQ Resource Center in neighboring Oceanside, volunteered at the post after hosting an International Migrants Day celebration a day earlier, Thursday night. On Friday morning, she said some customers showed up for a food giveaway at the center, but confided they were too nervous to attend the festivities the night before.

“Many said they were afraid to come out,” she said. “Maybe the focus on immigration, but also the night out.”

At the offices of the Universidad Popular in San Marcos, a sign on the door reads “Note: Private Property and Establishment,” warning immigration agents or other law enforcement officials that a court order is required to enter non-public areas.

Inside, pink signs decorated with flowers remind customers of their right to remain silent in the event of arrest and to ask officers if they are under arrest.

“Many of our community partners do signage like this,” Arcela Nunez said. “So if ICE does show up, we don’t want them coming in and we want people to feel safe.”

Behind their office, the group ended the night with a pair of industrial star-shaped piñatas. Dozens of children tried to break them, then went up to collect the candies after they burst.

Although the organization and the church host a posada and other community festivals each year, this year’s neighborhood pilgrimage particularly highlighted the plight of “strangers seeking welcome,” Aguas said.

“Based on the changing political climate, this work takes on a different meaning and resonance.”

Reporter Wendy Fry contributed to this story.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.