Faced with the approach of the harsh winter in Chicago (USA), local authorities are fighting against the clock to provide accommodation to thousands of migrants, housed precariously, who have saturated the response capacity of the city, which is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. end.
According to figures from the Mayor’s Office and civil aid organizations, of a total of 23 thousand people who arrived fleeing violence and economic collapse during the last year, there are still several thousand who live in tents and makeshift camps in front of police stations or at O’Hare Airport.
Venezuelan immigrant Jesús Aular, who sells arepas outside a shelter in the city, says he is “grateful for the opportunity they gave him to come to Chicago” and asks his compatriots to “calm down.”
Those who have been assisted live temporarily in 26 shelters managed by the city, which also resorted to hiring hotel rooms and asked the Archdiocese of Chicago for help to donate space in abandoned schools and churches.
But there was a backlog of about two thousand people who were not able to stay, and were going to be placed in a kind of military camp built with tents in the Brighton Park neighborhood. However, the work began and was suspended a few weeks later when it was found that the chosen land was highly contaminated.
“There is no planning, there is no plan. Tents are not a solution and would put the lives of refugees at risk during the winter,” Councilman Byron Sigcho López, of Chicago’s 25th District, told EFE.
The Democrat demanded that people be placed in brick buildings and properly prepared to resist the cold, which in January and February can reach 20 degrees Celsius below zero. “It’s a shame, these people need to be treated with dignity,” he said.
Venezuelan Tania Gelvez, who is staying in a tent outside a police station in Chicago, told EFE that they are “warring” and without hope of receiving help, especially food and clothing, amid the casualties. temperatures.
Meanwhile, Marilú Bueno, program director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, defended the city’s work: “Of course, brick and mortar shelters would be preferable, but the city has responded as best it could, and as quickly as possible,” he said.
The refugees are 85% of Venezuelan origin, but there are also those from Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and even Russia.
This is the case of Colombian Daniel García, who also lives in a tent and told EFE that the United States was not what he imagined and that he was thinking about “self-deporting.”
The crisis has worsened since April 2022, when the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, began sending buses full of newly arrived immigrants to cities and states considered “sanctuary”, friendly to immigrants, and 23,000 foreigners ended up in Chicago.
According to the Mayor’s Office, at the beginning an average of eight buses arrived per month with refugees, but the number increased and only from November until today, for example, there were already 102.
Sigcho López believes that Chicago is the victim of a “political attack” by Governor Abbot and the Republican Party, who have created a major problem to “persecute and dehumanize immigrants.”
political mess
But there are other leaders, such as Baltazar Enríquez, of the Little Village Community Council, who see the crisis as a power dispute between Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
Although both are Democrats, “they are not on the same page” to address the underlying solutions that the problem demands and they do not know “where to put the refugees,” he said.
He reported that his institution, which has operated since 1967 with funds provided by the Mexican-American community to help immigrants integrate, has provided housing solutions for 28 families and has suggestions for adapting a hotel and other abandoned buildings as shelters.
“But they don’t listen to us. They prefer to spend millions of dollars on contracts with allies and friends, each one for their part,” he said.
Jacquelyn Zúñiga, an activist from Brighton Park, complains for her part about the lack of transparency. “People don’t know what is happening and they protest,” she said in an interview with EFE.
The residents of the neighborhood where the tents were going to be erected celebrated the suspension of the works. Before the announcement they held a protest against the project that ended with police intervention to rescue a councilor and her assistant from an angry crowd.
“Our neighborhood is a melting pot, with people of all backgrounds worrying about the effects of the influx of thousands of new residents that would surely complicate our already overcrowded and underfunded schools, lack of jobs and health problems. security,” he added.
Local authorities and activists also blame the federal government for the crisis and lack of solutions.
“There is a certain systemic racism practiced by Washington, which took a year to begin issuing work permits to help get the lives of Venezuelans back on track, who need to leave the shelters,” said Councilman López.
On the other hand, he noted, some 25,000 Ukrainians who arrived in Illinois at the same time fleeing the war did not have any document problems or installation delays.
“The federal government is the direct cause of the situation, for imposing economic sanctions that have generated migration from those countries. It has to take responsibility and provide the necessary funds to care for these people,” concluded the councilor.
Jorge Mederos
