2.8 million migrants have come to the United States seeking asylum, mostly from Venezuela seeking freedom from political corruption, a ruptured economy, and financial extortion, and, reaching the border state of Texas, they have been used as political pawns by Gov. Greg Abbott, beginning in 2022 has bused them to Democratic strongholds such as New York City and Chicago, who earlier declared themselves sanctuary cities.
In moves calculated to get the maximum bang for their political buck, the optics are strong, and a target was the much maligned Vice President Kamala Harris, who has seen busloads dropped off in front of the gates of her home in Washington, DC.
As we have noted before the asylum seekers have made dangerous journeys from their homelands facing robbery, and extortion from those purporting to help them, only to make them even more vulnerable; and, many of them are women with children, some in various stages of pregnancy with little more than the clothes on their back.
Deliberately not coordinating with the aforementioned cities, Abbott has seemingly enjoyed the ensuing panic in Northern cities to find them shelter, food, and clothing, (especially for the coming winter months), and also the firestorm of resistance among many Americans.
Growing Resistance
This summer residents of the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago fought hard, but to no avail, to prevent the Broadway Armory being used as a migrant shelter, and in Brighton Park, another neighborhood seemingly destined for a winterized base camp to house them, residents attacked Ald. Julia Ramirez, and the ensuing melee sent her assistant to a local hospital for injuries.
These and other incidents across the country, have created another political and social rupture to an already divided country; and, taking sides against the migrant arrivals has become increasingly prevalent, and also a high degree of ignorance, with some seeing asylum seekers as illegal immigrants, and not through the legalized system of admission that the United States has created.
Irony also abounds as some of the most vocal opponents have family members that have been, or are recent migrants, and in some cases, illegal immigrants from some South American countries. And, while the political landscape has become a minefield of issues, this one is threatening to the social fabric of many major American cities.
Republicans are markedly singling out President Biden as responsible for the increase in migration and not the political and economic battles that have ensnared Venezuela.
For many Americans the role of the presidency is misunderstood,and they forget that in America we have the rule of law; and that Biden is not an autocrat, and Congress is the lawmaking body with duly elected representatives.
A primer on immigration in the U.S.
Efforts at regulating immigration began shortly after our independence from Great Britain, and have waxed and waned with the first laws imposing “limits that favored Europeans” as the Pew Research Center has noted.
In 1965 a law was passed, expansionist in scope, that “opened doors to immigrants from other parts of the world. In more recent years, laws and presidential actions have been shaped by concerns about refugees, unauthorized immigration and terrorism.”
Looking back we see that in 1790 a naturalization law limited those who could become a citizen to free whites, of the ill defined “good moral character,” and who had lived in the country for at least two years. And, it was not until 1870 that the right was “extended to those of African origin.”
For the Chinese, a law was passed in 1943 to give them limited access, and in 1952 race was eliminated as a reason for exclusion.
In 1965 the Immigration and Nationality Act favored skilled immigrants and family reunification rather than a country quota, and in 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act legalized “millions of unauthorized immigrants, mainly from Latin America, who met certain conditions.”
Since that time Congress has failed to pass comprehensive immigration law and new rules for asylum seekers, bringing us to this current juncture.
Seeking shelter
Affordable housing is at a premium for most of the nation, but especially in New York and Chicago, and proposals for even temporary shelters in unused buildings across the latter have resulted in angry public meetings, such as those in Edgewater and Brighton Park, but also hinges on long histories of racial segregation against Black and Brown people, versus Northern European whites. As one wag told us, “this would not happen if the immigrants were from Sweden.”
Current figures show that since August of 2022, there are 8,367 migrants living in city shelters, and nearly 3,000 are sleeping on the floors of police stations, often whole families, with limited access to bathroom facilities, food and water. There are also 12,251 migrants living in shelters, plus another 2,175 staying at O'Hare and Midway airports.
City officials are struggling with the daily arrivals and coordination has been fraught to provide adequate coordination of efforts, and volunteers are burnt out trying to meet the needs of even adequate nutrition, to name but one need.
In their frantic efforts,Chicago seems to have been ripped off by vendors providing security, case workers, janitors and others. In a recent investigative report by The Chicago Tribune,they described a security guard working 56 days in a row, 12 hours a day.
He is employed by Favorite Healthcare Staffing, a national employment firm, the lead contactor for these services, with pay rates of $60 to $150 an hour; and records show that hundreds of these workers “logged 84 hour work weeks with the overtime, paid at a 50% premium, helping ballon bills that topped at least $56 million.”
Perhaps out of embarrassment, the city has not released most invoices and media and volunteers are not allowed into the shelters, but the Tribune said that “the $56 million billed by Favorite Staffing from September 2022 through June 2022, reflected roughly two thirds of all funds the city spent on all migrant services.”
While the hours logged are questionable, the conditions of the facilities are less than optimal, say some, and others feel that the company is bleeding both the city coffers as well as burdening the staff, to gain more revenue, and Ald. Maria Hadden has noted that audits need to be done to monitor expenses.
Ald. Brendan Reilly whose downtown ward houses a former hotel, the Inn of Chicago, which is now the city’s largest shelter, told the Tribune that the charges were “insanity” and added, “The conditions that exist there are deplorable,” saying he has also had reports of intoxication, drug sales and prostitution outside the shelter doors.
Brandon Johnson, already under the microscope as the city’s third Black mayor, shortly after his election, has had to face down a number of his most ardent critics, first on increased crime, and now on his handling of the migrant crisis.
In September he inked a new contract with GardaWorld Federal Services to put up winterized tents or “yurt” base camps to deal with the nearly daily arrival of buses of migrants.
Brighton Park residents once again, voiced their opposition to migrants being housed in their neighborhood, this time at a standing room only meeting this past week; and, most were in an ugly mood, but there were some that questioned the wisdom of building the tents on land previously used for industrialisation, citing safety and environmental concerns.
Weeks later the mayor's office announced that there was a series of assessments carried out by an independent environmental group, yet there has still been opposition, and some confusion since construction has begun, but the final reports on any toxic materials left by the prior use of the site, will not be release until a week later.
This has prompted concern by some neighborhood representatives question the wisdom of the timeline, but also the fears that there will be thousands to be housed at the site in the future citing lack of transparency from the Johnson administration in previous discussions, and actions. They also say that the city has not done due diligence.
Critics have noted that these concerns are really objections to the tents couched in the language of concern. And, in an 111th hour reprieve by the Illinois state government and statements from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, they have now squashed the tents as being built, due to environmental concerns about dangerously high levels of mercury by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and voiding the $91,400 monthly lease, which was to have been funded by the state, but operated by the city.
While the city did have its own its own environmental study, Pritzker said that they "do not satisfy IEPA standards," and had earlier said that, "we're stepping in here to try to help accelerate the process. It is not moving fast enough." adding "that is why you are seeing people still on the street, and we just can't have people on the streets."
This is still the case and Friday's announcement that 350 migrant families would be housed in the previously shuttered St. Bartholomew's Catholic school in the Portage Park neighborhood has elected mostly positive reactions among neighborhood residents, but some have cautioned that they hope that the Archdiocese of Chicago does not gouge the city coffers.
In Brighton Park most, however, feared crime, and decreased property values,and perhaps presaging objections, the city has said there would be no single men, only families, to assuage resident those fears.
With a mixture of various Latino citizens, and some Asians, these fears were met head on, and local media reported that one person, Ada Zhu, reading from a script, said that Johnson’s actions, “clearly showed the mayor’s disrespect for our district. You are taking our rights away. This is not right.”
Protestors then tried to block the entrance to the construction site for builder assessment and one woman received a minor injury in the melee, and police had to be called in those early morning hours to clear them away.
City deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant, and refugee rights, Beatriz Ponce de Leon has said, “This is not a Chicago issue, This is a national issue,” but you would not know it from resident ire, with its potent mix of xenophobia, as well as racism.
Not all is rosy with Portage Park residents and as nbcchicago.com reported on their website, Friday:
"Outside of the former St. Bartholomew Catholic School in Portage Park, a group of residents and community members shared their concerns and complaints with city leadership, now that the building could be slated to become a temporary migrant shelter. “They have no clue what they are doing,” said Patrick Gibbons. “They have to take care of their own people before they take care of anyone on the outside.” Residents said a lack of safety is their main issue with the plan. “I really don’t feel safe with any new strangers walking around the neighborhood,” said Wally Prusko, a longtime resident. “I wish things wouldn’t go in this direction and I hope things can worked out.” People want to see the school used for children in the community or to help house some of Chicago’s homeless residents, but that likely won’t be the case."
This and other planned efforts is a planned partnership between the archdiocese and the city of Chicago.
As the winter cold approaches, there is concern on both sides for the safety and well being of the migrants, but with many residents refusing to house them in their neighborhoods, the dilemma is apparent.
The local NBC News affiliate interviewed volunteer Lydia Wong who said, "We have significant fears of things like frostbite [and] hypothermia," and added speaking of the migrants, "People here aren't used to the cold at all."
Racial Conflict
Race is never far from the surface in Chicago, and its Black residents, many from long disinvested and disenfranchised communities on the West and South sides, are up in arms at any proposals to house migrants in their areas.
Misinformation is rampant, and one elderly Black woman told us that the migrants, “are getting $7,000 a month and we get nothing.” And, a middle aged Black man said, falsely, “Last week the mayor went to Washington to get more money for the migrants and that shows me who he is,” and uttered an expletive. Johnson is scheduled to meet with White House officials, and possibly Biden, in early November.
At that meeting Johnson was joined by the mayors of Los Angeles and Denver, and Eric Adams, the mayor of New York who had to return to his city for an internal emergency.
Meeting with White House senior staff, they practically begged for more money for housing and care of the migrants, far beyond the $1.4 billion that Biden has asked Congress for. and most importantly, "accelerated approval of work authorization and a more coordinated entry process for migrants," reported Cbsnews.com.
Johnson told reporters that "The 40 million that it's costing the city of Chicago every single month to provide care for those individuals who are seeking asylum, that is not sustainable."
Current monies spent are $270,000 for the Park District, $1.4 million for Chicago Public Schools, and $15.8 million for the Cook County Health System, resulting in a funding gap between $158 to $201 million.
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Annette Guzman, Budget Director for the city of Chicago all but admitted in an interview with Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun Times that there was no plan B if the Federal Government did not provide more money for migrant aid. The only other source, absent that, would be a property tax increase.
Last week Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that the state will give $160 million to address what he called were the "bottlenecks" in the "pipeline" of housing the asylum seekers, plus $65 million for case management and legal services.
Long simmering resentments between Black and Brown residents have bubbled to the surface with the arrivals of migrants, and perception has bumped against reality.
Much of that reality has been that historic disinvestment in Black neighborhoods, but also they have lost the anchor of many of their neighborhoods, schools when the Rahm Emmanuel administration closed nearly 50 of them.
Local ABC affiliate included this in their earlier coverage of a public demonstration:
"For them to be sympathetic to their needs, saying it's a humanitarian issue crisis when Black people have had a humanitarian crisis for housing, employment and everything else," community organizer Jessica Jackson said. "How do we get pushed to the back?"
"We are taxpayers. We are property owners," Jackson [also] said. "Our money should be going to our communities, not supporting people who haven't put a dime into our communities."
To note, as of that date, a month ago, the coverage said: “According to data analyzed by the ABC7 I-Team, there are more than 20 active migrant shelters across the city, seven of which are located on the South and West sides.”
In a statement, the mayor’s office said in response: “"We are committed to continued investment for all residents, but especially communities on the South and West sides that have long experienced disinvestment. We are the City of Chicago, and our shoulders are big enough to support both new arrivals and those who have long called this city home."
Tensions are reaching a fever pitch between newly arrived migrants and longtime immigrant and minority communities over perceptions of unfair distribution of government benefits.
The Hill recently reported that, “as new arrivals become eligible for work permits, and in many communities of color, spending on shelter for asylum-seekers is viewed in contrast to scarcity in other social programs.”
“Mixed-status families, people who have lived here for 10, 20, 25, 30 years, who have been working, paying taxes, sending money back to Mexico, abiding by the laws, laying low — probably being better citizens than most Americans — are frustrated,” said Illinois Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D)."
Linking urban violence with with perceived threats of lawless asylum seekers has also created tension and further division, and each time one commits a crime, all migrants are seen as community threats.
García, in his interview with The Hill, also discussed that other refugees were much more easily assimilated, and said:“We’ve been able to, in Chicagoland, integrate about 30,000 Ukrainian immigrants who came to Chicago, and they did not get this much reporting over that period, much less stories about crime and drugs and prostitution.”
Absent from his remarks is that the Venezuelan asylum seekers are people of color and the Ukrainians are white.
Challenges to cultural assimilation
These efforts are not going to go away quickly, say most observers, and concerned residents are worried about cultural assimilation, as well as educating and supporting students; and, this has become a huge challenge with only 5 percent of area social workers speaking Spanish, forcing some students trying to harness learning by using Google Translate on their phones.
To make matters worse there was a physical altercation in early October when two Venezuelan migrant teens were attacked with a baseball bat after school, resulting in broken ribs, a black eye, and kicks according to local media reports.
The fight was with students from Afghanistan, and after initially being thought of as a hate crime, Hadden, their alderperson, said it was “over cultural differences” and that the Venezuelan parents thought that it was because of their immigration status, and went to the media instead of talking to Sullivan school officials.
She also said, in her statement, “The school is adept at helping newly arrived students adjust to their new home and culture, but it’s not a process without conflict.”
Indeed citywide conflict in Chicago seems to be the norm, as migrants arrive in droves each day.
Updated 8 December, 2023 at 11:18 p.m.. CSDT.
