We need more migrants, alderman says

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Rodriguez accuses colleagues of ‘anti-American’ attitudes

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(From the September 29, 2023 Greater Southwest News-Herald)

By Tim Hadac

A Southwest Side alderman told a group of local business leaders last week
that Chicago needs more, not fewer migrants from the nation’s southern border.

“I make the argument that we need more migrants in the city,” 22^nd Ward Ald. Michael Rodriguez told a meeting of the United Business Association of Midway. “To say we have no room for migrants is not only anti-immigrant, it’s anti-American. This country was founded by immigrants, and this country is strong because of migration.”

Saying Chicago needs more—not fewer—migrants, 22nd Ward Ald. Michael Rodriguez (left) argues that those who say the city can’t afford to pay for the migrant influx are anti-immigrant and anti-American, as 14th Ward Ald. Jeylú Gutiérrez and 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn listen. – Greater Southwest News-Herald photo by Tim Hadac

On the Southwest Side, the 22nd Ward includes the Vittum Park section of Garfield Ridge, the Hearst area and the northwest corner of Archer Heights. Its political power is centered on the Lower West Side, specifically the Little Village neighborhood north of the Stevenson Expressway.

About three dozen UBAM members attended the Sept. 20 lunch gathering—billed as a “power roundtable”—at Red Barrel restaurant in Archer Heights.

Rodriguez was one of four aldermen participating in a discussion of issues. The others were Marty Quinn (13^th), Jeylú Gutiérrez (14^th) and Silvana Tabares (23^rd).

Rodriguez’s anti-immigrant/anti-American accusation appeared to be in response to comments Tabares and Quinn made minutes earlier. In response to a question from UBAM President Anita Cummings about the migrant crisis, both Tabares and Quinn said they would oppose any attempts by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration to situate tents in their wards to house migrants.

Earlier this month, Johnson said he plans to install large, heated tents across the city to house men, women and children. Currently, more than 1,500 migrants are living on the lobby floors of 22 police stations in the city; and more than 400 more are living on floors at O’Hare International Airport. His administration also inked a $29 million pact with a private security firm to set up tents across the city.

Rodriguez said each tent would hold up to 1,000 migrant men, women and children, with each on sites of at least two acres.

Tabares said, “I don’t want to see these tents in the 23^rd Ward. Our schools in the 23^rd Ward, such as Hubbard High School and Hurley Elementary, are overpopulated. They’re bursting at the seams. That is not sustainable for us in Chicago.”

Should the Johnson Administration try to force tents on the 23^rd Ward, “I’m not going to let that stand without a fight,” she added.

Tabares said that before migrants are moved into a community, there needs to be an assessment of how the action will affect the quality of life. She also noted that a small percentage of migrants who have been bused to Chicago have engaged in such criminal acts as “prostitution, drugs and gang activity.”

“If one is seeking asylum in this country, one must follow the law,” the alderman added. “There needs to be accountability measures in place.”

She said she supports amending the Welcoming City Ordinance to allow city officials to cooperate with federal law enforcement officials in taking action against migrants who commit crimes. She also wants city residents to vote, via referendum, on whether Chicago should remain a sanctuary city.

Quinn focused on the financial costs of providing for the migrants already here, as well as the thousands expected to come in the year ahead.

“[In the 13^th Ward], we don’t have room for migrants…and for me it all comes down to the economics. We just can’t afford it,” the alderman said. “The mayor argued in his inauguration address that there’s enough [resources] to go around… I would politely argue that today, there is not.”

Quinn noted that New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently said the cost of the migrant crisis there may cause a fiscal crunch resulting in cutting city services by 15% across the board. “I don’t think that sort of thing would be fair to the citizens of Chicago,” he said.

Rodriguez said that of the four aldermen in the room, he is the only one with a migrant welcoming center (at Piotrowski Park, 4247 W. 31^st St.) He said the mayor has toured it, and it functions well.

Further, he said, the Johnson Administration has spruced up the park for the migrants (and by implication for the surrounding neighborhood) by filling potholes and fixing a long-broken bathroom.

While Rodriguez did not specifically use the term “population collapse,” he did mention the phenomenon elsewhere—specifically, in Italy and Japan, where there is a severe shortage of working-age adults to pay taxes to support an ever-increasing amount of elderly retirees. He implied that an influx of young migrants could help Chicago and the nation stave off that kind of crisis.

He also decried Chicago’s loss of African-American population and said there needs to be a massive government program to draw black people back to the city.

Cummings said, “I’m for helping everybody in the world, but we have a right to control our borders.” Further, she said she finds it frustrating that city officials “don’t seem to have a plan” to deal with the migrant influx; or if they do, they are keeping it hidden.

“This mayor promised to be transparent,” she said. “But from what I see, that’s not happening, at least where this migrant situation is concerned. It’s just ludicrous.”

In a related matter, U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-4th), whose district includes most of the Southwest Side, earlier this month stood at a sidewalk press conference led by his colleague, Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, to discuss their tour of migrant housing in the Roosevelt Hotel in Mid Town Manhattan. Speakers were almost drowned out the shouts and chants of New Yorkers angry over the ongoing influx of migrants. –Screenshot from a television news report