The United States has been experiencing an increase of South American migrants and is running out of resources and places for them to live. According to reporter Kasey Chronis, about 3,117 immigrants from South America are still currently in Chicago waiting to be placed in a shelter and roughly 11,500 migrants are being housed in two dozen city shelters at the moment (Chronis, 2023). Residents of Brighton Park have started protests, resulting in the community being an area where migrants are not welcomed. According to a Brighton Park student resident, “I saw about 1,000 people protesting against what migrants describe as poor living conditions.”
Over the last year, the city has helped migrants with housing support which includes migrant encampments such as the 115 and Halsted location. It is estimated that Mayor Brandon Johnson has set aside $150 million for these purposes(Cherone, 2023). According to an anonymous support agency member, “One way that the City of Chicago has assisted immigrants is through the Resiliency 2.0 Program. This program provided a one-time $500 payment to more than 14,000 people, including more than 5,900 low-to-moderate income immigrants living in Chicago. Heartland Human Care Services served as the Program Administrator for this program.” The city has taken a lot of responsibility to help these migrants. This brings a concern as budget director Annette Guzman estimates, it will be way more than $150 million spent. It would be approximately $361 million dollars in taxes for the migrant crisis to last up to the end of the year of 2023 alone (Cherone, 2023). Mayor Johnson believes that Chicago taxpayers should not be the only ones handling this burden , so he has reached out to state and federal officials to assist.. l To continue helping these migrants Johnson’s intended plan is to create a 13-person office for new arrivals. This group would work in the Department of Family and Support Services and will be given a budget of approximately $1.2 million dollars. It is still in the works of getting approved so we’ll have to wait to see if it works out.
Sources:
Interview 1: Thomas Kelly College Prep student who lives in the area.
Interview 2: Agency who provides support services for immigrants.
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