* Martin Cabrera of Cabrera Capital speaking at the City Club yesterday…
In Illinois, the US Latino buying power is about $101 billion every year. And when you see the neighborhoods - Back of the Yards, Little Village, Pilsen and suburbs who are contracting in business - there are fewer dollars spent and fewer taxes being collected at the State level. This will cause more of a budget gap for the State and decisions will get harder. Where are we gonna cut services? That will be difficult. So we need to band together, even the bipartisan organizations in the red states, to find solutions on a shorter term and longer term basis. We will feel it at the City level, state level and across the country.
* I called Cabrera’s office to ask about the $101 billion number, which would be about ten percent of Illinois’ trillion-dollar GDP. I was referred to a Latino Donor Collaborative study about the ten largest US Latino state GDPs in 2024. It actually had Illinois in fifth place at $145 billion.
A 2023 Sun-Times op-ed by Sylvia Puente and Daniel Cooper had Latino spending power in Illinois at $68 billion.
* Whatever the real number is, it’s a huge impact. And keep this 2022 story in mind…
The Little Village Arch also ushers neighbors and visitors through the commercial corridor known as the second-highest revenue generator in the city after the Magnificent Mile.
That’s huge.
* Block Club Chicago two weeks ago…
Local officials and immigrant rights advocates are calling on neighbors to shop local and support immigrant-owned businesses as threats of raids and reports of ICE arrests have brought foot traffic down in predominantly Latino neighborhoods. […]
Along Little Village’s commercial corridor on West 26th Street, businesses were open and some shoppers were seen visiting local grocery stores, restaurants and shops or walking past street vendors Monday evening.
However, foot traffic was “significantly” down and sales have been down since Friday, when many expected immigration agents to be fully assembled in Chicago, said Michelle Macias, daughter of Carnicería and Taquería Aguascalientes’ owner. The Mexican grocery store has been open in Little Village for 49 years and the restaurant opened in 1980.
“Everyone’s really afraid to come out to buy groceries, take their kids to school and just do everyday tasks,” she said.
Discuss.
- low level - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 10:09 am:
Cabrera is right on point, no question about it.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 10:26 am:
Spot on. At the end of the day this isn’t about making our cities safer. It’s deamonizing people of different ethnicities while causing real social and economic damage.
- Norseman - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 10:26 am:
Thinking people know the MAGA cleansing program comes at an economic cost. What is a surprise to me - and Rich dutifully followed up - is the Latino economic impact. WOW
- Homebody - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 10:37 am:
Every quantitative examination of immigration in the US shows it is a net financial benefit. Cracking down on visa holders and green card holders who have minor infractions in their past is soley based on racism, not on any meaningful expectation that it will improve anything for the country.
- Mason County - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 10:37 am:
OK. Still no excuse to have people come into our nation illegally- and that goes for all no matter where they come from.
Nor should they be allowed to stay here when they come in illegally. Mr. Cabrera has his own agenda. I understand that.
The Immigration Reform Act of 1986 gave amnesty to 2.7 million illegal immigrants. It promised secure borders and employer/employee ID. The first promise was delivered and the rest ignored by both political parties.
This nation needs a rational immigration policy. This would be based upon those who have unique skills that can immediately productive without harming employment of our own citizens. Temporary labor through visas should be just that,
temporary. With good wages, health care and housing provided by those who employ them. Again, not an end around to depress wages.
Complicated issue with very few willing to engage in a truly rational and non self aggrandizing manner that does not benefit them politi9cally or economically.
- Crispy - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 10:37 am:
This targeting of Latinos by the administration, aside from its clear racism, has always seemed counterintuitive just at a purely economic level. It seems designed to destroy the economy–and not just in blue states. Combined with the tariffs, this purge has really hurt the farm economy, especially (ironically) in states that voted red, where the harvest depends on workers who are now gone or in hiding.
I wish national-level reporters would start asking: Why does the administration appear to be trying to kill the U.S. economy? What is their true end game? Because it’s really looking like a deliberate program at this point.
Latinos make up ca. 20 percent of the U.S. population, making them the biggest ethnic group after non-Hispanic whites. Of course they have a huge economic impact.
- Ann Dwyer - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 10:38 am:
Crain’s on Sept. 5 published a comprehensive look at the impact on the Latino business community. The gist: The economic effects go well beyond neighborhoods like Little Village and Pilsen. The stories are free to view — no paywall:
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/elevate/chicago-latino-businesses-hurt-immigration-policies
- Perrid - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 10:52 am:
Latino doesn’t necessarily mean undocumented immigrant. A fact a lot of Dems ignored in the last election, weren’t prepared for the inevitable pulling the ladder up behind them that always happens.
I wonder how much of that $68b or $100 bn or $148 bn is related to undocumented immigrants to some extent.
- CA-HOON! - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 11:12 am:
==Latino doesn’t necessarily mean undocumented immigrant.
Tell that to ICE.
- Leap Day William - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 11:20 am:
== OK. Still no excuse to have people come into our nation illegally- and that goes for all no matter where they come from. ==
The fact that you automatically assume “Latino” here automatically means “illegal” really says something, especially when we have hard evidence of documented people (i.e., the people who did it “the right way” and are “legal immigrants”) being caught up in immigration raids and sweeps.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 11:24 am:
Good points Mason County. Both parties have contributed to the mess we’re in now. However, the larger point about the overwhelmingly positive economic impact of immigration should not be lost on anyone in and around Havana.
Mason County saw it’s high point for population in 1980, at 19,000 residents. Today it is less than 13,000. When you are ready to retire and move to a warmer climate, who do you think is going to move to Mason County and buy your house?
The US birth rates are low, we are not replacing ourselves, and states and regions that are not growing in population are destined for big economic trouble. Immigration is one way to boost rural America.
I’d encourage you to give more thought to an amnesty program like President Reagan signed in 1986. For your own sake and for the sake of your neighbors. Highly skilled immigrants are not likely to move to Havana, so you should be thrilled if any immigrants wish to live in your community.
If you’re not growing, you’re dying. And Mason County is not growing.
- Juvenal - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 11:32 am:
=== Still no excuse to have people come into our nation illegally- and that goes for all no matter where they come from.
Nor should they be allowed to stay here when they come in illegally. ===
To be clear, they did not “come here illegally.”
There is a legal process for undocumented immigrants to come here and seek asylum. Most of the people being deported were going through that legal process.
- SJOH - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 11:39 am:
@ Mason County What is your answer in polarized times? The last immigration reform bill was killed by the current president so he could use the issue in the election. Also the racist replacement theory is an obstacle.
Our whole GDP is at risk with these moves.
https://www.marketplace.org/story/2024/09/05/is-immigration-good-or-bad-for-the-economy-the-answer-is-complex
- Pundent - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 11:52 am:
=This nation needs a rational immigration policy.=
I absolutely agree. The current President does not. We had a bipartisan rational immigration policy up for vote in the last Congress. The current President put a stop to it. Not because it wasn’t in the country’s best interests but because it wasn’t in his own.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 11:56 am:
==can immediately productive ==
A lot of these people already have jobs and are productive. You’re ripping them away from their jobs and harming the businesses that employ them. Here’s a solution. If someone is working and being a productive member of society put them on a path to legal status instead of ripping them out of their communities and deporting them. But that’s too rational. We’re in an anti-immigrant punishing mode frenzy right now. It’s an immoral policy.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:02 pm:
So, you’ve got millions of people that are working and paying taxes, contributing to the economy, buying goods and services from businesses- and you want to get rid of them? Who is going to do that work? Who is going to pay those taxes? Who is going to do that buying?
- Tim - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:06 pm:
=== Who is going to do that work? Who is going to pay those taxes? Who is going to do that buying? ===
Pair this with work requirements for Medicaid, and you have your answer.
Once again: The cruelty is the point.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:14 pm:
“Who is going to do that work? Who is going to pay those taxes? Who is going to do that buying?”
“Native born Americans” is the answer I’ve gotten to these questions from the republicans in my life. So there you go, they have the problem they’re creating solved already. #winning
- Mason County - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:17 pm:
@47th Ward
Depends. If ANYONE they brings businesses that are really successful and they pay decent living wages they are most welcome.
But just increasingly your population base without the above is not only meaningless but detrimental.
I am not certain whether you do not know that economic reality or are just ‘deflecting.’
- NIU Grad - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:17 pm:
And people like Ald. Ray Lopez are selling out their community and advocating against the city’s economic success as a trade-in for occasional FOX News appearances and social media clout.
- Mason County - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:34 pm:
@Prudent
Are you referring to HR 4393 the so called Dignity Act? If you are then I submit the following. Yes, it does have some good provisions. And some are merely a repeat of the same promises made in the 1986 bill Deja vu all over again. Kind makes you wonder if the sponsors ever read the existing legislation and its meaning as well as content.
Provides for up to 10.5 million (DHS figures) illegal immigrants to obtain legal status. In effect, another amnesty bill.
As far as I can tell it does not provide any real immigration ‘reform’ in that there is still no detailed policy for the type of labor that we need in this nation and how that need should be specifically implemented. Again, it is largely a repeat of the 1986 bill with a little nod to Asylum application requirements.
Now, none of what I state is going to change the minds of those who want a massive new amnesty program. I understand that very well.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:41 pm:
===not only meaningless but detrimental===
Gonna ask that you provide some actual proof of that.
- H-W - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:51 pm:
@ Mason County
=== OK. Still no excuse to have people come into our nation illegally ===
This is literally a characteristic of what psychologists refer to as an “authoritarian personality type.”
Playing by rules because the rules exist, and because we have been taught to follow rules, does not allow for the questioning of rules - only their imposition on others. It is problematic in many ways, but it is certainly problematic because in justifies widespread harm to others on the grounds that the rules are assumed to be just and righteous without question.
A $70-100 B economic impact is more important that insisting that people who come here legally, only to subsequently be defined (not adjudicated) to be illegal must leave.
Step back, Mason County, and breathe. What is the goal of your approach? Assuming you were the authority here, what would you accomplish if you had your way?
Think beyond the rules. Many immigrants were allowed to come here legally and work here legally. Unfortunately, the current Administration has by fiat, declared many legal residents of Illinois to now be illegal because of their national heritages, not because of their actions. Is that just and righteous? I say no.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:53 pm:
Not a word of complaint from those who trash Illinois’ business climate.
Republicans and MAGA are going to ride with Trump no matter the damage, that’s been clear for years. The party of rugged individualism won’t put a stop to any of it.
- BE - Wednesday, Sep 24, 25 @ 12:53 pm:
==“Native born Americans” is the answer I’ve gotten to these questions from the republicans in my life. ==
Is the appropriate response to that “So, which of your kids or grandkids are you sending to pick crops year-round?” Because I have yet to find someone who says that also say that that’s what they want for any relative of theirs.