An annual Riverside County celebration honoring Mexican culture has been canceled due to community concerns over ongoing immigration enforcement operations across Southern California.

The Festival Monarca y Feria Educativa has taken place for over 40 years in downtown Perris, according to event organizers with TODEC Legal Center , which offers legal services and job training to immigrants. They say that the event celebrates the resilience, culture and shared fight for dignity and justice of the region's Mexican community.

"Monarch butterflies migrate, depending on seasons, they migrate, but they always come home, and that's who we are as immigrants," said Luz Gallegos, the executive director of TODEC.

However, this year the organization's board of directors opted to cancel the celebra

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