The Santa Barbara Eastside Society has canceled the 2025 Milpas Street Holiday Parade due to concerns over immigration enforcement, according to the organization's website.
The 71st annual parade was scheduled to take place on Dec. 13 in Santa Barbara.
Event organizers said their decision was made after weeks of receiving feedback from community members, who shared that they would feel unsafe attending a large public event given the current uncertainty surrounding the presence of ICE in the region.
The Santa Barbara Eastside Society posted the cancellation announcement online, where they explained that "to move forward without honoring those concerns would contradict the very values that this parade was built upon."
The non-profit organization said it hopes to bring back the Milpas Street Holiday Parade in 2026, adding that choosing to cancel the 2025 parade was "not easy."
