Ray Lopez leads and champions rights of Chicago residents
Statement on Mayor Johnson’s Next Steps with the City’s Migrant Crisis
Today, I and many of my City Council colleagues attended a briefing about the ever-growing border crisis that has reached a boiling point in our neighborhoods.
Mayor Johnson and I share the belief that avoiding addressing the individuals, families, and children arriving by the thousands in Chicago would be more catastrophic and dangerous to our communities than any action taken to this point. However, continuing down the path set by the Lightfoot administration will only fail. Our approach must be financially sustainable and reflect the concerns of all impacted communities.
I am cautiously optimistic about the proposal by Mayor Johnson to address the federal government’s failures in dealing with a broken immigration system.
We must stop using police stations as a “port of entry” for migrant asylum seekers. It is not humane for them or acceptable for our officers to coexist under these circumstances.
I am glad the Johnson administration is committed to working with me to create models for providing and maintaining safe spaces inside shelters and in the surrounding neighborhoods. I have proposed using community- and religion-specific organizations to help educate new arrivals on societal norms and customs that are acceptable and respectful of Chicagoans and our neighborhoods.
For months, I have warned about the potential price tag taxpayers will face in light of the federal government’s inactions. The Johnson administration has confirmed my numbers: taxpayers will spend over $255 Million by year’s end on this crisis.
The President must act – and he must act now! It is simply unacceptable that Chicago is forced to shoulder the burden for asylum-seekers because of the federal government’s unwillingness to address this crisis decades in the making. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas must immediately direct the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to immediately establish field courts to hold merit hearings on all pending asylum cases. Individuals not meeting the threshold for asylum should be deported.
If Biden & Mayorkas refuse to enforce the law, at the very least, asylum seekers should not become wards of the state. They should be allowed temporary work status so they can become self-sufficient and contribute to the City.
The biggest caveat for me and my community is that any attempt to grant legalized status for asylum seekers should come only after addressing the nearly 600,000 DACA recipients currently living in the United States awaiting any resolution on their status. We must address the preexisting immigration issues currently in this country.
For Chicago, how can we, as a welcoming city, continue to open our arms to asylum seekers while stepping over our DREAMERS who were brave enough in their own right to come forward for peace of mind only to be forgotten?
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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