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Chicago’s Migrant Crisis of Conscience

Dr. Munr Kazmir
3 min readMay 4, 2024

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Without popular support, can Chicago stay a Sanctuary City?

Photo by Erik Cooper on Unsplash.

Chicago residents are fed up with city leadership. And lately, during town halls, public meetings, and community listening sessions with Mayor Brandon Johnson and other senior city officials, Chicagoans have been making their displeasure quite plain.

“Let’s get into it,” began one fed-up Chicago resident frankly, addressing Chicago’s Council in February. “68,000 Chicagoans remain homeless in this city. Our Black kids are running rampant out here. Downtown has three to four illegal families on every block.”

“We’ve got displacement of elder people, mass illegal evictions, a massive bedbug problem that the Chicago Public Housing Authority hasn’t dealt with,” she added angrily. “Aren’t they supposed to charge the landlord $2,000 per day?”

Like many speakers addressing city council members, she demanded how state and federal largesse — earmarked for Chicago residents — is being spent.

“Where is that money?” she demanded incredulously. “Where is the money for the South side and the West side? It’s 20 black aldermen and women and a lot of upset Black constituents. Not another dollar for the illegals.”

“If the crisis is so bad, city leaders should donate their salaries to the cause” she added before…

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