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Texas Gov. Greg Abbot began busing migrants to Chicago long before Mayor Brandon Johnson was sworn into office. More than 26,000 new arrivals have come to Chicago since last summer, according to the city’s online dashboard. And more continue to arrive.
Our section has published several op-eds and columns this year that offer perspectives on what can be done to ease the immigration crisis in Chicago and the U.S. and provide basic needs for those arriving to our city after making arduous journeys from their home countries. And some writers have questioned what it really means for Chicago to be a “sanctuary city.”
Here is a look back in excerpts.
Jan. 9: Shailja Sharma, ‘The border ‘crisis’ is a problem that we can solve’
Geographically, our southern border is the only place where people can access asylum, a universal human right. The United States shares borders with only two countries, Mexico and Canada. Almost everyone asking for asylum accesses it at our southern border because to our north is Canada, a safe country. At one time, people could fly to one of our airports or access our territory on boats, but we have closed off those options. Airlines have been turned into de facto immigration agents because they are made to pay huge fines if they carry people to an airport where those passengers ask for asylum. The same is true for boats or ships.
Any person fleeing rape, violence, persecution, gangs or terror must find a way to make it to our southern border. There is no other way.
Instead of seeing this situation as a human rights nightmare, which it is, Americans are concentrating on reading it as a quasi-assault on our sovereignty. When the mayor of El Paso, Texas, Oscar Leeser, asked for additional resources, he was instead attacked for not declaring an emergency. Yes, asylum-seekers are at our border. We have the resources for processing their applications. Why aren’t we using them?”
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May 22: Sheldon Jacobson, ‘Here’s how the government can improve processing immigrants’
No matter what immigration policy is used, it is critical that the people being vetted have appropriate documentation to establish where they are coming from and what their current citizenship is. Without such information, it is impossible to implement any policy in a fair and equitable manner.
Providing standardized requirements for every possible immigrant long before they ever get to the border is critical. Without widespread communication campaigns throughout Latin America, immigration officers are handcuffed in doing their jobs. This would be like Transportation Security Administration officers not being able to protect the air system if they are focused on sorting through the identity verification materials presented by every traveler and assessing which will be accepted.
... Create multiple layers to vet immigrants, with each layer providing independent information to facilitate processing. An online system is a step to facilitate this. The key is consistency, which means that if people show up without having registered, authorities could provide computer network facilities for them to register, all in their language of choice, with ample assistance available. Only those registered should be processed. Once rules are broken and standardization is compromised, it becomes impossible to maintain order at the borders.
June 19: Susan Gzesh, ‘Asylum-seekers should be allowed to work in Chicago’
Things were very different back in the early 1980s. Hundreds and then thousands of Salvadorans and Guatemalans fleeing murderous governments began arriving in our city. Their immediate needs were taken care of by informal networks within their own communities and by the religious congregations that eventually formed the sanctuary movement. Although the flow of refugees went on for at least a decade, their survival did not require the public marshaling of resources for shelter, food and clothing we see today.
The critical difference was that until 1986, undocumented immigrants and asylum-seekers could find jobs. There was no “employer sanctions” law — asylum-seekers who wanted to work were able to get jobs that enabled them to supply their own daily needs soon after they arrived.
Today, we have a federal law that bars employers from hiring any foreigner who lacks official authorization to work. It’s official federal employment authorization that the new asylum-seekers need.
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Aug. 6: Jack Markowski, ‘By housing migrants at park facilities, mayor is betraying city’s youths’
The day before construction crews began converting the armory’s gyms into a massive dormitory, city officials could not tell Edgewater residents when they expect the park’s programs and community spaces to reopen. Since resolution of the migrant crisis at the southern U.S. border has been elusive for decades, Edgewater residents are understandably concerned it may be years before the armory is reopened. Residents of other Chicago neighborhoods should take heed as their park programs may be the next on the chopping block.
The problem with this ad hoc solution is that it shifts the cost of sheltering migrants to those who can least afford it — at-risk youths and working families. These Chicagoans rely on the “safe space” and affordable recreational and educational services provided at our urban parks.
Aug. 20: Dr. Deanna Behrens, ‘Give young asylum-seekers access to pediatric care before more children die’
I am proud of our city and state for welcoming these individuals. I am proud we are a sanctuary city. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a disaster declaration to unlock resources for asylum-seekers. We are one of at least 10 states that extend government-sponsored insurance to low-income children regardless of immigration status, though we did recently scale back coverage for adults in similar circumstances.
Illinois is going to provide a funeral and burial for the 3-year-old asylum-seeker who died on that bus. But she should not have been there in the first place. How many more vulnerable children need to be buried in the United States before things change? Before these children have access to needed pediatric care and pediatric subspecialists? Before we can ensure that parents are listened to, and help is called when necessary?
We need to speak out at the state and federal level against policies that harm children. And we need to continue to show support for the policies that make our community a sanctuary for these children and provide them with necessary and appropriate medical care.
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Oct. 9: Laura Washington, ‘Instead of going to the border, the mayor should attend a community meeting’
Critics dismiss (Mayor Brandon) Johnson’s planned trip as a publicity stunt, a high-profile attempt to show he is large and in charge. Mr. Mayor, instead of touring the border, here’s a better use of your extremely valuable time.
You love to remind voters that you are a former community organizer. So, you should be right at home, attending those community meetings to hear firsthand the barrage of complaints and concerns of your constituents and respond. Instead of jumping on a jet to fly 1,400 miles to the border, take a short ride to O’Hare International Airport to inspect the humanity languishing there.
Come to my neighborhood, where I regularly walk by the shuttered American Islamic College, at Irving Park Road and DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The school has been transformed into temporary housing for 1,000 migrants. Young children are playing outside, their numerous bicycles propped up inside the gates. All are provided beds, hot showers and regular meals.
Chicago Tribune Opinion
Directly across the street, on an embankment butting up against the busy drive, sit several thin, raggedy tents blowing in the wind. Living there are homeless Chicagoans.
Mayor, ask yourself, what’s wrong with that picture?
Dec. 1: Christopher Richardson, ‘Prohibition has lessons for the migrant crisis’
Prohibition did permit exceptions in the same way America’s current legal immigration does provide avenues, but in both cases, the public then, as the public now, bent those rules well beyond their intention to meet the demands of that time. During Prohibition, for example, the law allowed for medicinal use of alcohol. This exception quickly overwhelmed the medical profession as doctors pocketed an estimated $40 million for writing medicinal whiskey prescriptions. ...
Similarly, asylum laws were only meant for a small portion of individuals who are seeking asylum. Of the 1.3 million pending asylum cases, chances are only about 31% of them will get asylum, based on historical trends. Asylum is an exceptional remedy, just as medicinal alcohol was then, but in both situations, the exceptional quickly became the rule because they are essentially the only game in town.
What lessons can we learn from our failures then and now? First, repealing Prohibition did not suddenly make drinking entirely available no more than reforming our immigration laws would lead to open borders. A series of regulations after the repeal of Prohibition in the 1930s led to closing hours, age limits, Sunday blue laws and a collection of geography-related prescriptions that kept bars and package stores away from schools, churches and hospitals. ...
The same is true for immigration. Updating our immigration system with a much larger number of legal immigrants, a greater number of immigration pathways, faster temporary work visa processing, technological case management improvements and far more flexibility in increasing immigration numbers during good times and decreasing in bad would help as well.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.