Suburban residents call for action on Chicago migrant crisis
This week, community activists in Oak Park held a march through the town, calling on City Hall to expand Oak Park and other suburban communities' support for Chicago's growing migrant population.
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Since August 2022, Chicago has seen the arrival of nearly 19,000 migrants, many of them asylum seekers from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and other Spanish-speaking countries. Though the city has poured thousands of dollars of funding into supporting the migrants, many migrants are still living in temporary housing at police stations and at O'Hare Airport. As the cold Chicago winter approaches and the number of migrants only increases, community activitists met in Oak Park to campaign for more suburban towns to get involved in housing and supporting some of the thousands of migrants arriving in Chicago.
The group was primarily made up of Oak Park residents alongside a few dozen asylum applicants and citizens from other towns. Carrying signs and banners, they proclaimed that Oak Park's borders were porous. As a relatively wealthy and safe suburb, the group practically begged Oak Park to use some of its resources to help support migrants.
Some organizations in Oak Park are already doing their best to serve migrants housed in temporary tents just across the street in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. One Oak Park church is offering free showers and meals to migrants every Tuesday and Thursday, and the town's health department is offering a free vaccine clinic with access to Spanish-speaking translators this week, in an effort to help families get the vaccines their children need to attend school.
However, even the costs of providing these simple services are rising dramatically. The previously mentioned church's water bill has increased ten times over, and church leadership are already exploring grant options to continue funding this program. As the city explores options to potentially begin resettling migrants, the associated costs for Oak Park and its residents will only increase. City officials have begun applying for grants to help cover the costs associated with housing asylum seekers and providing them with the legal, medical, and wraparound services they require.
Despite the potential obstacles, the city seems dedicated to helping migrants and confident they can rise above the challenges, potentially helping to welcome and support dozens or even hundreds of migrants in their new lives in America.
