Finger Pointing Over Migrants Needs to Stop
A group of Venezuelan asylum seekers depart a bus after being shipped to Chicago from Texas. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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OPINION
I oppose illegal immigration.
People who sneak across the border, swim across the Rio Grande, or lie their way in should be arrested, banned from the country, and deported back to their country of origin.
But, those aren’t the people currently being dropped by the busload on Chicago city streets.
The vast majority of those migrants, a large percentage from places like Venezuela or Nicaragua, entered the United States legally as they’re seeking asylum from their home countries. Most are facing political persecution or violence.
And it’s not like they’re showing up on a cruise ship. They often make the trip by foot, including through a 60-mile roadless wilderness between Panama and Colombia called the Darién Gap. By foot.
This has nothing to do with “sanctuary” cities or any conservative or liberal viewpoint. Closing the border is an economic nightmare that some studies have estimated will put five million jobs at risk.
It’s not that out of line for Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has been shipping the migrants to Chicago like cattle, to make a statement that his state shouldn’t be expected to bear the entire load while the federal government does next to nothing to handle the crisis.
Housing these migrants and helping them resettle is a costly, controversial conundrum.
A poll released Thursday by Republican-aligned pollster Matt Podgorski and M3 Strategies shows 49% of respondents oppose housing migrants in the city of Chicago while 46% support the efforts. 70% say the believe the new migrants are negatively impacting Chicago residents in need.
All you have to do is see news coverage of contentious neighborhood meetings to see there’s a certain level of NIMBY in parts of the population.
The most frustrating part of the conversation the past few weeks is the finger pointing between the City Council, Mayor, Governor, and federal government.
Providing the necessary shelter and job placement services for these migrants while their asylum applications are adjudicated costs money. So far, the city and state are bearing much of the responsibility, and it’s not like they’re deep in cash anyway.
Governor Pritzker indicated Thursday there likely isn’t anymore state money coming to help with the problem.
“It isn’t as if we’re coming in with enormous surpluses,” Pritzker said Thursday. “This is not something where we have hundreds of millions of dollars to support.”
Pritzker this week sent a letter to President Biden asking for more federal resources to address the problem, and, frankly, he’s right. Immigration is a federal issue and the federal government has done a pathetic job in handling an issue that hasn’t been a surprise to anyone.
It’s not like the Republican-led House, that is controlled by the far-right “Freedom Caucus” that helped depose former Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week is the bastion of thoughtful leadership these days.
That leaves the Biden administration. The executive has a lot of room to move money around, move people around, and make Herculean efforts happen in little to no time. The Biden administration has pushed through paperwork for thousands of Afghan refugees after the military withdrew from that country last year. Are they doing that for migrants here legally? No. It’s a matter of priorities.
Democratic members of Congress, especially the two Democratic Senators and 8 Democratic House members who represent a portion of the city of Chicago, need to start hounding the White House, publicly and privately, to get the situation under control.
These are men, women, and children who have done nothing wrong. They aren’t criminals. They’re just trying to survive.
It’s the American way to help them.