By Safia Samee Ali and Daniella Silva -
NBC News
CHICAGO, Ill. — As more immigrants continue to bus into Chicago, advocacy groups that have been working with the undocumented community say the city still needs to fix many structural flaws to support and sustain not only newcomers, but also to the undocumented community already established there.
Since August, Texas Governor
Greg Abbott has sent more than 2,500 migrants to Chicago
.
Although city and state leaders have launched a rapid response strategy to locate the migrants, immigration activists and organizations feel efforts to improve social services are part of an emergency solution, not a long-term one.
They also criticize that these temporary measures do not take into account the thousands of undocumented people who are already having difficulties living in that city.
Chicago has established temporary housing in shelters and hotels and a reception center where people arriving by bus can contact family members and access medical, legal and other services as part of the immediate response strategy.
On Friday, the city said in a statement that each individual not only receives housing, food and medical care, but also "in-depth case management and connections to services."
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot has promised to welcome migrants and help locate them.
"The city is actively working on solutions with our state and county partners to identify temporary housing and provide services that will lead to eventual resettlement in Chicago or elsewhere," a city spokesperson said in a statement.
But questions remain about how that resettlement will take place, because historically the city has not provided publicly funded programs that provide long-term housing or resources to undocumented people, beyond recent and likely temporary relief strategies and derived from the pandemic.
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"I still see this as a kind of very temporary support, it's not something structured and long-term, so that worries me a little bit," said Xanat Sobrevilla, coordinator of Organized Communities Against Deportations, a local group advocating for undocumented immigrants. .
"Immediate support from hotels and organizations that are currently struggling to supplement resources will not bring about structural changes in the accessibility of housing and other things that
we need for long-term support
, such as work permits," he explained. Survived.
Chicago has nearly 829,000 people at risk of deportation, according to 2016 data analyzed by the Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice nonprofit.
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There is still a lack of housing and the long and complicated process to obtain work permits has created a class of vulnerable undocumented people who live in cramped apartments and work illegally, Sobrevilla said.
There has to be "some acknowledgment that this has been neglected and continues to be neglected," she said.
A migrant who arrived in Chicago from Honduras in 2018 said she "wasn't informed about anything, absolutely nothing" when she arrived, including how to find work and legal help for her asylum case.
She asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation because her immigration case is ongoing.
[Immigration authorities accuse Republicans of lying to migrants and attracting more to the US with their bus trips]
"When you arrive they tell you that you don't have permission to work in the United States, but how are you supposed to support your family?" the woman explained.
"People come here disoriented. They don't know what to do. They come here and they don't know what's going on."
She also said that being undocumented has led to her being taken advantage of and often being paid much less for jobs that others are paid more for.
"They say that Chicago is one of the cities that receives migrants. It's time to show that," he said.
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More support needed
Merced Alday came to Chicago as an undocumented immigrant in 1994 and is still applying for legal status because she was afraid the process would affect her family in Mexico.
Alday said he lived in a small house with his brother and three other families for many years after he arrived.
For many migrants, that is a common situation during their legal cases, he said.
Alday said that she did not receive much support or guidance when she arrived and feels that the situation is not very different now.
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“We still have the same problems and they continue to happen,” he said, referring to people forced into crowded living due to lack of stable housing.
Alday questioned why so much assistance was being offered to newly arrived migrants and why the city wasn't also reaching out to those who have been struggling for years to navigate the system.
[Florida company that moved migrants donated money to Republicans and has ties to DeSantis' immigration czar]
It is not clear if the centers can serve immigrants who are not related to the buses coming from Texas.
It is vital that city leaders engage those who have been in the city without legal status to gain a true understanding of the current situation and infrastructure to ensure long-term plans for new migrants are comprehensive, said Luis Sinchi, education organizer for Communities United, a racial justice organization that works with the undocumented community.
Sinchi said the migrant families she has worked with frequently
have to rely on family or personal networks to find work or housing
, and without that support, she has seen many people end up living on the streets.
If there was a stable infrastructure for housing and long-term resources for asylum seekers, that would also help the undocumented community in general.
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"It's about engaging the community and listening to people's struggles," he said.
"Policies from 40 or 50 years ago may not reflect or apply to the needs or problems of this moment."
While housing stability and legal jobs have been issues the undocumented community has fought for for decades, recent attention could provide the momentum needed to formulate solutions to those issues, said Brandon Lee, communications coordinator for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
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"In terms of being more powerful together, this is a time where we can advocate for something that meets the needs of many people, not just newcomers," he said.
Historically, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago have invested in services for undocumented people, Lee said, and that's because communities have demanded it.
"There is no emergency infrastructure"
In August, Chicago became the latest city in the United States to receive migrants on buses, following similar experiences in Washington, DC, and New York City.
Those cities quickly became overwhelmed by the influx of people arriving from Texas.
On Friday, New York Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency over the "humanitarian crisis" of thousands of asylum seekers pouring into the city and criticized Texas Governor Greg Abbott for exacerbating the problem.
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Although Chicago had some time to prepare, there was still "disorder" when the buses arrived, said Sylvia Puente, president and CEO of the Latino Policy Forum, a nonprofit that works on public policy for Latinos in Chicago and Illinois. .
"We're coming out of the eye of the storm. We still have to figure out how the dust settles and see how we solve this and how we move forward," he said.
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Puente said the city has welcomed asylum seekers through a network of private organizations set up to offer help, but there was not enough infrastructure to handle the arrival of thousands of people.
Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, has called for more state and federal resources.
Last month, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation to "unlock resources" to help asylum seekers and deployed 75 National Guardsmen to help with the logistics of receiving refugees. migrant people.
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The Illinois Emergency Management Agency has also established an area command center in Chicago to quickly deploy resources to support the governor's operations, a city spokesman said in a statement.
"There is no emergency infrastructure, it is being created in parallel," he said.
"It's nascent and evolving, and I think the leadership structure and the way we move forward will improve a little more in the coming weeks," the spokesman said in the statement.
