Mayors say the quiet part out loud
Monday, Sep 12, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Background is here if you need it. Tribune…
Earlier this year, Burr Ridge hosted asylum-seeking refugees from Afghanistan who have now found permanent housing and employment, according to [Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso]. Those families also stayed at Hampton Inn & Suites, he said.
“Being a place for refugees to come sounds like immigration — it’s not the hotel business,” Grasso said, sharing that he has been in touch with hotel staff. “We would likely not let you open a hotel if you tell us that you’re going to be housing refugees as your primary source of business.”
* Meanwhile, from a CBS 2 reporter…
The ABC 7 story in question is basically just a copy and paste of Mayor Johnson’s press release without any sort of label. Click here for the press release and click here for the station’s rewrite.
Also, while there may not be any need to notify the mayors, that particular mayor was notified in advance and he still complained.
- vern - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 9:28 am:
=== “Being a place for refugees to come sounds like immigration — it’s not the hotel business,” ===
The hotel business is trading temporary shelter for money. Immigrants and refugees are categories of people who want to trade money for shelter. Sounds like a hotel doing hotel business to me.
- Norseman - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 9:36 am:
Giving a courtesy notice when a government agency or its agent does something in another governmental unit’s jurisdiction is a good governmental and political practice.
However, the responses from the mayors show they’re loudly blowing their dog whistles.
- Big Dipper - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 9:37 am:
The Elk Grove Village mayor also defied the mask mandate. He fits a mold.
- TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 9:38 am:
“basically just a copy and paste of Mayor Johnson’s press release”
An insult to journalism, is putting it mildly.
Using a hotel is a completely legal activity. Seeking asylum is a completely legal activity. I now would like to see a reporter ask one of these mayors if they prefer to be notified when a high school band books a bunch of rooms at the hotel too.
- ArchPundit - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 9:42 am:
He compares this to being a sanctuary city and this is very much not that kind of situation. These are refugees who have claimed asylum and have a legal status in the United States until that claim is adjudicated and most will likely have reasonable cases given they are from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela from previous stories.
Sanctuary cities is a bad description, but essentially the city doesn’t help ICE locate undocumented immigrants who do not have any legal status.
- Save Ferris - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 9:43 am:
“We would likely not let you open a hotel if you tell us that you’re going to be housing refugees as your primary source of business.”
He’s right. You’d never get approval to run a Refugee Hotel.
Then again, certainly doesn’t appear that the “primary business” of this hotel is for refugees.
Weasel words, Grasso.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 9:50 am:
Local TV news is wholly worthless. It’s incredible that someone made an editorial decision to have a news chopper fly over some immigrants exiting a bus with everything they own on earth in plastic bags so he could get his “BORDER CRISIS HITS HOME” chryon.
Are we sure we didn’t need to get the night vision goggles out for that one? Maybe film it in FLIR next time so it hits home to all the terrified elderly in the audience just how SCARY these immigrants are.
- H-W - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 10:05 am:
It seems to me there is a clear middle ground here. Obviously, immigration has personal and social costs that must be borne. One of the social costs is the housing of those seeking asylum. The Hotel industry is only a partial, and temporary element of the solution. One of the social costs we need to be better stewards of, is the cost of maintaining and restoring those hotels that are asked to share with those in need. We need to assure these business owners that they are serving the common good, and that we will share the common wealth to assist them as they assists others.
- vern - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 10:11 am:
=== We need to assure these business owners that they are serving the common good, and that we will share the common wealth to assist them===
Luckily we have a mechanism for communicating this already. It’s called “making a reservation.” That and a credit card number is all the assurance a hotel needs before they agree to trade shelter for money.
- Da big bad wolf - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 11:03 am:
I read elsewhere that family members were picking refugees up in the hotel parking lot. This hotel is off the expressway. This seems a good choice to disembark the bus, hotel rooms for people who don’t have family members to pick them up right away and a parking lot off the expressway for refugees that do.
What was Mayor Johnson going to do for the refugees that the hotel wasn’t going to do anyway?
- Pundent - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 11:09 am:
=He compares this to being a sanctuary city and this is very much not that kind of situation.=
Because the ultimate goal is not to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration. Because if it was this would be seen as a perfectly legitimate legal process for asylum seekers. This is all about keeping people out of a community that don’t look like us.
- Dotnonymous - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 11:11 am:
Migrants, immigrants and refugees…the phony horror makes Mayor Johnson ridiculous.
- JS Mill - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 11:12 am:
=“We would likely not let you open a hotel if you tell us that you’re going to be housing refugees as your primary source of business.”=
I thought the gop was the party of small government that stayed out of the way of business?
I kid of course.
Burr Ridge has gotten pretty uppity in the last 30 years. But, what I have not heard is that the police had to be called to the hotel or that there was an actual problem caused by these folks who are just looking for a better way forward in life. I guess the mayor is not a fan of the Statue of Liberty.
- Huh? - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 12:21 pm:
I’m going to make a mental leap and trip all over myself, so if I understand this gopper correctly, if I want to stay in a Burr Ridge hotel, I have to get his permission first?
- thisjustinagain - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 1:17 pm:
Counter-dog-whistle blower here: Why should Burr Ridge be the new home of CHICAGO’S decision?? They shouldn’t, let the City house them in hotels inside City limits, instead of making other towns deal with the results of the City and LL’s invitation. And a day’s notice isn’t enough where the arrivals likely need all manner of social services that should be paid for and arranged by Chicago, not Burr Ridge.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 1:22 pm:
===Why should Burr Ridge be the new home of CHICAGO’S decision?===
Chicago is in Illinois, last time I checked.
- vern - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 1:30 pm:
=== let the City house them in hotels inside City limits, instead of making other towns deal with the results of the City and LL’s invitation===
What results? It’s a few hotel reservations. Mayors don’t have a right to screen or veto hotel reservations in their towns, and they don’t have a right to check papers at the municipal border. These refugees came seeking a free country, and that includes freedom of internal movement.
- Save Ferris - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 1:35 pm:
“Why should Burr Ridge be the new home of CHICAGO’S decision??”
You mean Texas’ decision, right?
- ArchPundit - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 1:54 pm:
===And a day’s notice isn’t enough where the arrivals likely need all manner of social services that should be paid for and arranged by Chicago, not Burr Ridge.
Most of the services are state services, family, or private organizations as the Tribune story points out. More to the point, most of these folks are eligible to work from the sounds of it and last I heard there is a labor shortage. This isn’t a long term situation.
- Chito - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 4:16 pm:
Does Burr Ridge not want the revenue the State pays the hotel?
- Chris in ChiTown - Monday, Sep 12, 22 @ 8:27 pm:
If anyone has something to say, please write it after you have volunteered by speaking Spanish or helped organize your parish or block to donate items needed to a nonprofit helping the asylum seekers. It seems like folks have uninformed opinions to tell us about. Perhaps seeing the asylum seekers as human beings is the best way to think about them.