PILSEN – Rather than stay home out of fear, organizers of Pilsen’s annual Mexican Independence Day parade noted a higher-than-usual turnout Saturday despite threats of more federal immigration raids and a president who joked that morning about going to war with Chicago.

The parade stepped off noon Saturday and followed a brief press conference from Sen. Dick Durbin, who denounced an inflammatory Truth Social post from President Donald Trump. The event notably did not see a federal law enforcement presence.

Trump evoked the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now” by posting “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning …’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” accompanied by an illustration of the president squatting in an army uniform against the backdrop of a war-torn

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