32 Comments - JoanP - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:03 am: That’s an excellent article. I knew what the term meant, but I did not know how far back Chicago’s sanctuary city status went, nor much of the history behind it. - Hannibal Lecter - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:14 am: === Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city does not require it to encourage immigrants to move to Chicago nor does the Welcoming City ordinance obligate officials to use taxpayer funds to care for immigrants in Chicago. === This needs to be repeated over and over until everyone understands. - lake county democrat - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:17 am: But the one impact she acknowledges is a big one. If you take Abbott at his word (and that’s a big if), he wouldn’t send more migrants here if Chicago repealed the sanctuary city ordinance. Now sure, given how successful it’s been politically, he might simply cite to the state’s similar law and keep doing it, but he also might stay true to his word and stop - surely glorifying in the “win.” Obviously the continued stream of migrants has an impact: it stretches housing/services/donations thinner (and if Biden grants exemptions to allow them to work, competition for job applicants). I’m surprised nobody in the media has asked Abbott point blank about this. - Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:20 am: ===but he also might stay true to his word and stop=== Sure, Jan. - NIU Grad - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:20 am: Very accurate and the most aggravating part of all of this. Migrants seeking refugee status are here legally. Chicago could easily choose to not provide care (as it may be doing under a hypothetical Vallas Administration), but that wouldn’t suddenly result in mass deportations. It would only result in thousands of families living on the streets or under bridges at a level we’ve never seen before. This isn’t about “sanctuary cities.” This is about Republicans wanting to troll Democratic cities, on the federal dime. That’s their political philosophy at its core. - lake county democrat - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:25 am: Rich: he wouldn’t stop out of good intentions, he would stop because it would be a PR coup - he vanquished the libs and got them to undo their legislation when faced with its consequences, and then turn up the pressure on New York and other cities. - Abby - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:25 am: This is more complicated by the perception that names like “Sanctuary City” and Welcoming City” created with average voters. It does appear that supporters of the Welcoming City Ordinance and the Sanctuary City concept are “resisting” certain immigrants arrival. How can Chicago truly be a welcoming city if they don’t welcome all immigrants to the City? It would seem that perhaps some of Chicago Ordinances or policies should be amended or repealed in order for the City to properly convey it’s current position on immigration to the rest of the nation? Splitting hairs debating whether the Welcoming City Ordinance applies or not won’t work because of the perception that people already have regarding Sanctuary Cities on how those cities should behave. - Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:26 am: LCD, it ain’t in the cards. You think we should trust that guy? Maybe go take a nap. - Blitz - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:26 am: What a great primer. Always love seeing stuff from Heather Cherone. Thank you for the share. - Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:27 am: ===people already have regarding Sanctuary Cities=== Sanctuary is for people here illegally. Asylum-seekers are here legally. It doesn’t apply. The media has done a horrible job with this, adittedly so. But facts are facts. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:29 am: It will only stop if the Feds take over the entire process, including setting up “Ellis Island” type processing away from state (see: Texas) intervention to any type of “processing” (see: Sending to cities for politics) It’s not stopping anytime soon because one city or state succumbs to Abbott’s want. - Quibbler - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:30 am: == If you take Abbott at his word == As a Chicago resident, I don’t recall voting for Greg Abbott to dictate city policy vis-a-vis migrants. - don the legend - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:34 am: ==This needs to be repeated over and over until everyone understands.== All due respect, The Fox crowd will never hear or if they do, ever understand the meaning of Sanctuary. They only care about owning the libs. - Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:36 am: ===The Fox crowd will never hear=== They’re not persuadable. Period. So they’re not in the mix here. - Hannibal Lecter - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:39 am: === All due respect, The Fox crowd will never hear or if they do, ever understand the meaning of Sanctuary. They only care about owning the libs. === Its true that some people will never accept this reality for whatever reason. With this said, you have to think that for a good number of people that do not have a strong affinity for right-wing propaganda, this piece of information might help them better understand the issue. One can only hope. But if it is never reported, people will never know. That is why this piece is so important. - lake county democrat - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:40 am: Rich: No, I don’t think we should trust him - that’s why I suggested the media put the question to him, quoting his past statements back. I guess I do trust that if he said in that case he would stop the buses he would do it, and if he said no he looks all the more terrible. - Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:44 am: ===he looks all the more terrible.=== lol This is a guy who put barbed wire in the Rio Grande to rip up people trying to cross. And you think he would want to not look bad? Move along and get back on topic. - Hannibal Lecter - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:46 am: === This is a guy who put barbed wire in the Rio Grande to rip up people trying to cross. === Wow. What a society we live in. What other species on earth do this to others of their own kind? - Jerry - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:48 am: Great piece, thank you for posting. Mayor Johnson (and Governor Pritzker) need to step up the leadership and ensure our new citizens can get to work, start paying taxes, contribute, etc. - Jerry - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:51 am: @Hannibal: There is the story in the “bible” where Jesus hung barbed wire to keep “those people” out./s - Bloop. - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:52 am: “The ordinance also directed Chicago Police Department leaders to ignore requests immigration authorities to detain undocumented people. . .” It’s not that CPD can just ignore immigration authorities, it is that immigration enforcement is solely a federal power. CPD, a municipal law enforcement entity, is not authorized nor obligated to exercise immigration enforcement. Therefore, having CPD not take on the role of ICE (for which ICE is funded for, whereas CPD is not) is legally sound and it’s also why the Feds can’t compel CPD to comply. - Amalia - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 10:57 am: the non Abbott side has to get louder that these folks are not here illegally. and VP Harris, figure things out about how to manage and pay for people. also think there’s confusion about sanctuary especially because of Slim Coleman and Emma Lozano. Church sanctuary for someone who was here illegally and to be deported for being convicted of using a false social security number was a big cause celebre of those two. it’s been a leftist cry for years. so things get mixed up. deporting people convicted of crimes is just fine by me. - walker - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 11:03 am: I’ve tried this argument at the doors, and the voters aren’t getting the distinctions. Facts might be facts, but perceptions created by attractive labels rule — even face-to-face. - Jimbo2 - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 11:50 am: I’d like to understand how the protests in Chicago are being organized. It’s no coincidence when over 50 people show up at a proposed tent site on 38th street with hand drawn signs that look like most were drawn with the same markers on a couple of different types of paper. The group, who seem to be primarily Asian & Latino do not appear to be n=my stereotypical Fox viewer. - Roadrager - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 11:56 am: ==This is a guy who put barbed wire in the Rio Grande to rip up people trying to cross== Now Rich, in the interest of fairness and accuracy, I would like to point out that the governor had circular saw blades installed in between buoys of the barrier he installed in the Rio Grande. The barbed wire is what he’s ordered to be put up along the border with New Mexico. - RNUG - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 12:57 pm: I’m going to step back and take a different look at it. Abbott’s apparent end goal is to get the Federal government to act on the border / immigration crisis in Texas. Texas has been asking for help for many years … and while they get some funding (yes, it’s a lot more than Illinois), they haven’t gotten much help to slow the flow. For better or worse, Abbott recognizes all politics is local, and he’s making his problem local in states he believes can get Washington’s attention. Cynical … but, to use a cliche, politics ain’t beanbag. We have quite a few relatives on both sides of the political spectrum in Texas. They all complain about it. Texas’s problems exponentially dwarfs Chicago’s. You can disagree with Abbott’s tactics, but, from a purely political perspective, it looks like it is having some effect. You now have seen the Governors of both Illinois and New York calling for action in Washington on immigration reform. And if recent actions by the Biden administration are any indication, such as restarting flights to return disqualified asylum seekers to Venezuela, and starting to rebuild portions of the border wall in Texas on federal land experiencing overwhelming influxes, Washington is getting the message, or at least part of it. - RNUG - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 1:05 pm: == Asylum-seekers are here legally. == Asylum-seekers are temporarily here legally, until their claims are determined to be valid or invalid by the Federal government. A lot are claiming, among other reasons, economic hardship, which is not a sufficiently valid claim under current law. That means people claiming economic hardship need to try to come in via the legal immigration quotas. That’s hard to due because of the various quota limits in the current law. Which is why the US Congress needs to get its act together and do whatever level of immigration reform can be agreed to in spite of the political divisions. - Roadrager - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 1:18 pm: ==You can disagree with Abbott’s tactics, but== Again: Floating circular saw blades hidden in a river. - Dotnonymous x - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 1:45 pm: - but, from a purely political perspective, it looks like it is having some effect. - Any tyrant can make that same claim. Nothing is purely political. - Pundent - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 2:13 pm: =the non Abbott side has to get louder that these folks are not here illegally.= The Abbott side is anti-immigration legal or otherwise. The term “illegal” gives them cover but it doesn’t alter what they fundamentally believe. - Ivory-billed woodpecker - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 2:50 pm: Benefits of the “welcoming city” ordinance which I always thought important and am surprised not to hear more often: We want people here without permission (i) to provide witness statements to police and (ii) use the public health system without fear that they will be pointed out to the feds. Bad for everybody when crimes are not reported or well investigated because the victims/witnesses are scared of talking with the police. And as one recent example, we should want everybody to be vaccinated against dangerous communicable diseases. - northsider (the original) - Friday, Oct 20, 23 @ 3:32 pm: For decades people have come here illegally, melted into society and found work, housing and raised families. Now we have the paradox that people legally here are living in far worse conditions than those here illegally, and can’t take shadow jobs because they will lose their status. What a mess. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.