Donald Trump’s plan to deploy national guard troops and federal immigration agents to Chicago is already having an impact on the city’s Mexican community.

Organizers have canceled several local events tied to Mexican Independence Day, which occurs on 16 September.

People of Mexican descent constitute about 21% of the city’s population, according to census data, and hold annual events around the holiday that attract thousands of people.

But Trump recently inaccurately described Chicago as “the most dangerous city in the world” and said: “We’re going in.”

The administration plans to send 230 agents, most of whom work for Customs and Border Protection, to Chicago from Los Angeles as part of an increased effort to make immigration arrests, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

At least three events connected to the holiday have been canceled or postponed. Organizers decided to cancel El Grito Chicago, an event that drew 24,000 people last year, and was scheduled for 13-14 September.

“It was a painful decision, but holding El Grito Chicago at this time puts the safety of our community at stake – and that’s a risk we are unwilling to take,” the event’s website stated. “While we’re torn by this decision, when we brought this celebration back, our aim was to create a safe, affordable, family-friendly, community festival for all.”

The anxiety in the country’s third-largest city comes after Trump deployed national guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington DC.

Contrary to the president’s assertions, Chicago is not among the country’s most dangerous cities, and the number of homicides decreased from last year to this year, the Guardian reported.

Illinois had about 550,000 unauthorized immigrants in 2023, according to the Pew Research Center. The governor,JB Pritzker, said that he was concerned about Ice agents targeting attendees at the Mexican Independence Day events.

“We have reason to believe that Stephen Miller [the White House deputy chief of staff] chose the month of September to come to Chicago because of celebrations around Mexican Independence Day that happen here every year,” Pritzker said at a news conference.

In addition to El Grito, the Mexican Independence Day parade and festival in the suburb of Waukegan was postponed until November, and the Latin Heritage Fest in Wauconda was canceled, a local Fox affiliate reported.

“It feels like a slap in the face,” Galiela Mendez, 25, told the Associated Press of the El Grito cancellation. “I think we are all on edge because it’s the same people that describe our home this way, but they never come here and see it for themselves.”

Despite the uncertainty, on Saturday morning, people attended a parade celebrating the holiday in one of the city’s primarily Mexican neighborhoods.

“My heart is like pounding a little bit because I don’t know what to expect today,” Magdalena Alvarado, a longtime Chicago resident, told the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Trump posted on Truth Social that Chicago was about to find out “why it’s called the Department of War”.

Trump signed an executive order Friday authorizing that title for the Department of Defense.

The post, in reference to the film Apocalypse Now, also stated: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning.”

Pritzker responded on X, “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal.”

Verstappen has not won since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in May.

One might have expected the four-time champion to be pessimistic of turning this into a win, as the McLaren has generally had a much bigger advantage in races this year than in qualifying, because it is so good on its tyres.

But Verstappen was relatively optimistic after qualfiying.

“I don’t sit here and think it is going to be easy to be in front of McLaren,” he said. “The whole season has shown that.

“This season we have had a few good qualifyings but in the race we always seem to struggle a little bit compared to them.

“I am going to give it a good go. Friday, my long run was nice. I’m not sure it is going to be enough but if we can do something similar and they don’t improve too much then I have a feeling that maybe we have a chance.

“To stay here will be tough but we will see what we can do.”

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained the technical reasons why Verstappen might be more competitive over a race distance this weekend than previously.

Stella explained that the McLaren was the fastest car in the corners but was losing time on the straights in qualifying.

“In racing, the corners become quite a bit longer, because you brake earlier, you go later on throttle, so the grip-limited area extends, and this would make our car just naturally more competitive,” he said.

“However, from what we have seen in terms of lap times in practice, if we take the lap times that Verstappen was able to do, they were very comparable to ours. I think he has done a whole long run in 1.23s, which is very fast, very competitive.

“We have seen good lap times for Ferrari, good lap times for Mercedes.

“The Tarmac is very high grip after the resurface last year. I think there won’t be necessarily much degradation, and it won’t be the natural characteristic of McLaren being very good when the grip is low.

“I think the field will be much more compact, not only in qualifying like we have seen today, but also in the race.”