Commentary: Chicago employers need workers; the migrants in the shelters need jobs. This could be a win-win end to one local aspect of the current crisis.
Opinion content—editorials, columns and guest commentaries—is created independent of news reporting and is exclusive to subscribers.Jerson Puertas, from Venezuela, gets dressed after showering in a mobile shower unit set up outside New Life Church in the Little Village neighborhood on May 18, 2023.
Since last August, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has used state funds to send some 10,000 asylum-seekers by bus from the Texas border to Chicago, proudly a “sanctuary city.” His political stunt seemed to be aimed at provoking a Democratic city to reject migrants. We have met the challenge. Chicagoans have been very generous to the new arrivals, donating money, food, luggage and clothing — and volunteering their time to help. The City Council has allocated $51 million to refugee support, including temporary housing and medical assistance. The city has made unused public buildings available as shelters — and allowed migrants to stay temporarily in police stations. Mayor Brandon Johnson and predecessor Lori Lightfoot have advocated for the migrants.
I have been a lawyer and professor specializing in immigrants’ rights and immigration policy for more than 40 years. I’ve worked with asylum-seekers, lobbied policymakers, advised foundations, counseled sanctuary congregations and taught about the human rights of migrants. I have never seen anything like this situation before. But there is a solution to the problem of unsustainable charity: Let the migrants work!Things were very different back in the early 1980s.
The critical difference was that until 1986, undocumented immigrants and asylum-seekers could find jobs. There was no “employer sanctions” law — asylum-seekers who wanted to work were able to get jobs that enabled them to supply their own daily needs soon after they arrived.Sign up to receive Chicago Tribune opinion columns and guest commentary by email as soon as they're published.
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