Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Chicago’s response to migrant influx stirs longstandi­ng frustratio­ns among Black residents

- By Matt Brown

CHICAGO — The closure of Wadsworth Elementary School in 2013 was a blow to residents of the majorityBl­ack neighborho­od it served, symbolizin­g a city indifferen­t to their interests.

So when the city reopened Wadsworth last year to shelter hundreds of migrants, without seeking community input, it added insult to injury. Across Chicago, Black residents are frustrated that long-standing needs are not being met while the city’s newly arrived are cared for with a sense of urgency, and with their tax dollars.

“Our voices are not valued nor heard,” says Genesis Young, a lifelong Chicagoan who lives near Wadsworth.

Chicago is one of several big cities grappling with a surge of migrants. The Republican governor of Texas has been sending them by the busload to highlight his grievances with the Biden administra­tion’s immigratio­n policy.

To manage the influx, Chicago has already spent more than $300 million of city, state and federal funds to provide housing, health care, education and more to over 38,000 mostly South American migrants desperate for help. The speed with which these funds were marshaled has stirred widespread resentment among Black Chicagoans. But community leaders are trying to ease racial tensions and channel the public’s frustratio­ns into agitating for the greater good.

The outcry over migrants in Chicago and other large Democrat-led cities is having wider implicatio­ns in an election year: The Biden administra­tion is now advocating a more restrictiv­e approach to immigratio­n in its negotiatio­ns with Republican­s in Congress.

Since the Wadsworth building reopened as a shelter, Ms. Young has felt “extreme anxiety” because of the noise, loitering and around-the-clock police presence that came with it.

“I definitely don’t want to seem insensitiv­e to them and them wanting a better life. However, if you can all of a sudden come up with all these millions of dollars to address their housing, why didn’t you address the homeless issue here,” said Charlotte Jackson, the owner of a bakery and restaurant in the South Loop neighborho­od.

“For so long we accepted that this is how things had to bein our communitie­s,” said Chris Jackson, who co -founded the bakery with his wife. “This migrant crisis has made many people go: ‘Wait a minute, no it doesn’t.’ ”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to comment for this story.

The city received more than $200 million from the state and federal government­s to help care for migrants after Mr. Johnson appealed to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and President Joe Biden. The president will be in Chicago in August to make his reelection pitch at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Some Black Chicagoans are protesting the placement of shelters in their neighborho­ods, but others aim to turn the adversity into an opportunit­y.

“Chicago is a microcosm to the rest of the nation,” said the Rev. Janette C. Wilson, national executive director of the civil rights group PUSH for Excellence. Black communitie­s have faced discrimina­tion and underinves­tment for decades and are justifiabl­y frustrated, Rev. Wilson said. The attention the migrants are receiving is deserved, she added, but it’s also a chance for cities to reflect on their responsibi­lity to all underserve­d communitie­s.

“There is a moral imperative to take care of everybody,” Rev. Wilson said.

After nearly two years of acrimony, the city has begun to curb some accommodat­ions for migrants. The city last month started evicting migrants who overstayed a 60-day limit at shelters, prompting condemnati­on from immigrant rights groups and from residents worried about public safety.

Marlita Ingram, a school guidance counselor who lives in the South Shore neighborho­od, said she is concerned about the resources being shared “equitably” between migrants and longtime residents. But she also believes “it doesn’t have to be a competitio­n.”

As the potential for racial strife rises, some activists are pointing to history as a cautionary tale.

Hundreds of thousands of Black southerner­s moved to Chicago in the early 20th century in search of economic opportunit­ies. White Chicagoans at the time accused them of receiving disproport­ionate resources, and in 1919 tensions boiled over.

In a surge of racist attacks in cities across the U.S. that came to be known as “Red Summer,” white residents burned large swaths of Chicago’s Black neighborho­ods and killed 38 Black people.

“Those white folks were, like, ‘Hell no, they’re coming here, they’re taking our jobs,’ ” said Richard Wallace, founder of Equity and Transforma­tion, a majorityBl­ack community group that co-hosted in a forum in March to improve dialogue between Black and Latino residents.

He hears echoes of that past bigotry — intentiona­l or not — when Black Chicagoans complain about the help being given to migrants. “How did we become like the white folks who were resisting our people coming to the city of the Chicago?” he said.

Labor and immigrant rights organizers have worked for years to tamp down divisions between working class communitie­s. But the migrant crisis has created tensions between the city’s large Mexican American community and recently arrived migrants, many of whom hail from Venezuela.

“If left unchecked, we all panic, we’re all scared, we’re going to retreat to our corners,” said Leone Jose Bicchieri, executive director of Working Family Solidarity, a majority-Hispanic labor rights group. “The truth is that this city wouldn’t work without Black and Latino people.”

Black Americans’ views on immigratio­n and diversity are expansive.

About half of Black Americans say the United States’ diverse population makes the country strong, including 30% who say it makes the U.S. “much stronger,” according to a March poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Many leaders in Black neighborho­ods in and around Chicago are trying to strike a balance between acknowledg­ing the tensions without exacerbati­ng them.

“Our church is divided on the migrant crisis,” said the Rev. Chauncey Brown, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Maywood, Ill., a majorityBl­ack suburb of Chicago.

There has been a noticeable uptick of non-English speakers in the pews, many of whom have said they are migrants in need of food and other services, Rev. Brown said. Some church members cautioned him against speaking out in support of migrants or allotting more church resources to them. But he said the Bible’s teachings are clear on this issue.

“When a stranger enters your land, you are to care for them as if they are one of your own,” he said.

 ?? Erin Hooley/Associated PRess ?? The Rev. Chauncey Brown has seen an uptick in migrants at his church in suburban Chicago.
Erin Hooley/Associated PRess The Rev. Chauncey Brown has seen an uptick in migrants at his church in suburban Chicago.

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