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Migrant news coverage roundup

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Illinois

* ABC Chicago | Oak Park trustees vote to spend an additional $500K to help migrants through winter: The additional money is coming from unspent federal funds, not from local taxes. The vote was four to three to approve the measure. […] Meanwhile, the village is scheduled to meet with Cook County officials to see if they can provide some funding support in the future.

* KMOV | ‘They can come here’: Mayor Jones fires back at St. Charles County attempt to block immigrants from moving to St. Louis: Mayor Tishaura Jones said she is excited for hundreds of Latino migrants to come to St. Louis. “We are eager to get to work and eager to make sure that people who come here for a myriad of reasons, especially if they are fleeing a dangerous situation that they are welcomed in St. Louis,” said St. Louis City Mayor Tishaura Jones.

* South Side Weekly | Finding Comfort in a New Spiritual Home: The Medinas are Catholic, a denomination that comprises more than sixty percent of Venezuela’s population according to the most recent census. When the family arrived in Chicago, they felt it was important to seek out a faith community that reflected their values. “I told my husband let’s go look for a church, let’s go, but there are so many churches here,” Yesica said. “We found this church in district nine at the police station. They were handing out fliers and that’s where it all started.”

* Sun-Times | Brighton Park migrant tent site construction blocked by protesters: ‘Show me the permit; I’m ready to go to jail.’: About a dozen protesters planted themselves at the entrance of the site at 38th Street and California Avenue, demanding a copy of an environmental assessment of the lot and of construction work permits authorizing building to begin on a space intended to house migrants. […] On Monday, protesters stopped crews from putting a layer of gravel over the lot, a requirement for building a tent site, according to city officials who last week said lots had to have a concrete or gravel base to be under consideration.

* CBS Chicago | Migrant tents gone from outside Near North District police station: Officials said there will also be more personnel to help reunite migrants with family, friends, or sponsors. For many, Chicago isn’t their final destination. The effort will help free up space in city shelters for those who plan to stay in the city. The city is also cracking down on drivers in rogue buses. Those drivers will no longer be allowed to randomly drop off migrants at a location without notice. The bus companies will be cited and fined.

* Melissa Gatter | A Camp is Never a Solution: I learned one major lesson after having spent much of the last decade researching and working in refugee camps in Jordan: a camp is an easy response to mass displacement, but never a solution. You can imagine my concern when I heard that my home city, Chicago, had announced plans to build two winterized base camps in the South Side. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration claims that this base camp will not be a refugee camp.

* South Side Weekly | At a NYC Reticketing Site, Some Migrants Are Choosing Chicago: The Weekly spoke to several migrants outside St. Brigid who were evicted from the city’s shelter system about where they might choose to travel, and whether they consider Chicago an attractive destination. The responses were mixed, and many said their ties to family or friends in destination cities were more consequential than the level of public services provided by the cities. Most of the people we spoke to were not aware of what services Chicago is providing. … While NYC officials maintain that the reticketing option is purely voluntary, migrants say that the lack of other options and poor conditions at shelters are squeezing them out.

* Patch | 20% Cut To NYC Migrant Spending Needed To Avoid ‘Serious Fiscal Harm’: The state has since signaled plans to limit asylum seeker services such as legal services, case management and job placement “as opposed to costly housing and shelter needs,” Jiha wrote, a move that could prove disastrous for a city that has already planned for the state to cover a third of the Big Apple’s total asylum seeker expenses.

* Block Club | Underfunding In Chicago’s Health Department Hurts Black And Brown Communities Most, Advocates Say: Wagaw addressed the department’s funding model and other challenges facing the health department during last month’s budget hearing. She told alderpeople relying on grants to fund public health was “not a good model,” but she doesn’t “know the answer moving forward.” Principally, what the department needs is more state and city tax dollars to expand or introduce programs like community health workers, nurse home-visiting services, Healthy Chicago Equity Zones, migrant health and community health assessment and planning, Epplin said during last month’s budget hearing.

posted by Isabel Miller
Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 10:06 am

Comments

“South Side interfaith organizations lead efforts to link migrants to permanent housing and welcoming communities”

The same thing is happening in Oak Park. The voluntary cooperative efforts of individuals who share the values of “love thy neighbor” are powerful.

Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 10:18 am
Guessing the Johnson Administration learned their lesson about making the shelter sites publicly known and hosting “community meetings” to discuss. Stations cleared out, tents not set up seems to indicate many new shelters opening around the City-which isn’t a bad thing. Just goes to show this whole community driven approach on everything isn’t a fruitful way to run the third largest City in America.

Comment by LastModDemStanding Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 11:07 am
Brighton Park and Oak Park, only a few miles away from each other but are seemingly in two different worlds.

Comment by levivotedforjudy Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 11:58 am
Many sections of St. Louis de-populating, and are even worse for gang violence, shootings, and carjacking then the worst sections of Chicago. Their D.A. is like Cook County’s D.A. and has similar “let them go” policies. No one is doing the migrants any favors by sending them to St. Louis.

Comment by DuPage Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 2:07 pm
Sigh. 6 plus months in office and no different than day one.

Comment by DisappointedVoter Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 4:13 pm