Funding Approved
After much passionate deliberation, the Chicago City Council voted Wednesday to approve a $51 million initiative for care and housing for Central and South American migrants sent to Chicago by the Texas government. The motion passed with a vote of 34-13, but not before long debates and loud interruptions from protestors.
The vote on the migrant funding divided aldermen and citizens alike. Three council members moved to delay the vote a week beforehand. Some argued that the money should be allocated to under-funded neighborhoods. Others believe that because Chicago is a sanctuary city, it is the city’s duty to help those seeking asylum.
A City Divided
After passionate debate and loud outbursts by demonstrators, Chicago City Council approves using $51 million to help influx of migrants coming to city. pic.twitter.com/6zh4fEhGZG
— Tahman Bradley (@tahmanbradley) May 31, 2023
Both sides threw boos and cheers back and forth as they made their cases. A coalition of Chicago’s Republican Party, the Black Community Collaborative and the Neighborhood Network Alliance urged their fellow aldermen to vote no.
“We are not being told where that money is going to be spent. We are not being told how it is being spent,” said Republican Party chairman Steve Boulton. “It is irresponsible for the City Council to appropriate what is no more than stopgap money that will get us through a month or two and then the problem will still be staring at us in the face.”
“I get calls from seniors who have paid their taxes for 60 or 70 years. Their porches are falling down. Their roofs are collapsing. Yet they have to go through a lottery to stay in their homes. Some of ’em end up homeless. They go to a field house that’s 100 years old. It’s falling apart. They say, ‘Y’all get us no money for that,'” said 17th Ward Ald. David Moore. “Loving my residents doesn’t mean I hate anyone else.”
Who Is Responsible for Helping These Migrants?
On the other side, however, council members argued that the pressing nature of this problem demanded action from the city. Both those who support and those oppose the funding called on the state and federal governments to provide more financial assistance to help cover the costs for asylum seekers who have arrived from Texas.
“Our organizations and our communities have already been bearing the cost of this. And, to be fair, a lot of the migrants that you’re seeing at our doors and in our neighborhoods – they didn’t charter their own bus to Chicago. They were sent here,” said 49th Ward Ald. Maria Hadden.
“This should be put on our federal government. This should be put on our state,” said 41st Ward Ald. Anthony Napolitano.
“We declared ourself a sanctuary city, so therefore that (Texas) governor is going to send these people – these poor people who have nowhere to go, nowhere to eat, nowhere to sleep, nowhere to shower – to places that have declared themselves sanctuary,” said Napolitano. “That falls on us. We never prepared in ’85, we never prepared in 2011, we never prepared in 2021.”
The Migrant Crisis Comes to Chicago
Since August 2022, more than 10,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago. The number of arrivals per day increased in May to nearly 100. Around 800 migrants are currently sleeping in police stations across the city due to a lack of available housing.
Title 42, which was enacted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed officials to deny migrants entry into the country and the right to seek asylum at U.S. borders. The authority of Title 42 expired on May 11. Thus, migrant arrivals have been growing steadily in the last several weeks.
The city has established at least 10 shelters to house migrants, and community organizations have been providing transportation to and from the shelters, as well as other services such as food, clothing, and medical care. Handling this influx of migrants from January to June has cost the city close to $125 million, according to city officials. The state of Illinois has only provided about $30 million in aid.
The $51 million approved by the city council comes from a 2021 budget surplus created by opioid and vapor court settlements. This funding is only expected to last until June 30. Therefore, the city council will soon need to meet and debate once again to determine what the city will do with migrant arrivals going forward.
Written by Seth Herlinger
Sources:
ABC7 News: Chicago City Council approves $51M for migrant housing
CBS News Chicago: City Council approves $51 million in funding for migrant housing amid raucous debate
Chicago Sun-Times: Divided City Council approves $51 million in migrant crisis funding
New York Times: Open-Armed Chicago Feels the Strains of a Migrant Influx
WGN9 Chicago: Chicago City Council approves $51M aid for migrant care
Top and featured image courtesy of Daniel X. O’Neil‘s Flickr page – Creative Commons License
Inset image courtesy of Barbara Zandoval‘s Unsplash page – Creative Commons License
