Chicago's Emanuel wants city to house 1,000 more young illegal immigrants, report says
Chicago's Emanuel wants city to house 1,000 more young illegal immigrants, report says
FILE: February 27, 2014: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the microphone at the White House, in Washington, D.C. REUTERS
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former Obama administration chief of staff, wants to expand the citys efforts to house young illegal immigrants from Central America, reportedly proposing to shelter an additional 1,000 of them by year's end.
"The influx of unaccompanied child migrants is a growing humanitarian crisis that we can no longer ignore," said Emanuel, according to The Chicago Tribune . "While we have our own challenges at home, we cannot turn our backs on children that are fleeing dangerous conditions.
The mayors office says the federal government will pay for the youths shelter, education, health care, food, safety and social services.
However, officials are trying to get Chicago lawyers to provide free legal services for the youths, who arrived in hopes of staying with U.S. relatives but now face federal deportation hearings.
To be sure, Chicago has its own challenges, including a recent violent-crime wave in which at least 82 people were shot over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, with 16 victims dying.
The Chicago area already has nine such facilities, which according to the National Immigrant Justice Center have roughly 500 beds for illegal-immigrant youths already in the United States.
City official have yet to disclose the locations of the new sites and how many they will need and must be retrofitted to accommodate the youths.
Emanuel, also a former Illinois Democratic congressman, announces his plan amid the national debate on what to do with the estimated 57,000 illegal youths who have illegally crossed the southern U.S. border during the past nine months.
They hope to stay in the U.S. based on a 2008 law, enacted to curb human trafficking, that allow youths from non-border countries to live here.
Other cities and states have rejected housing the new arrivals, including the residents of the California city of Murrieta who held protests and turned away buses full of illegal border-crossers.
Earlier this month, Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin OMalley, a major Obama supporter during his re-election effort, called on the presidents administration to take a more humanitarian approach to the crisis.
The White House in turn purportedly leaked work that OMalley opposed a plan to send some of the youths to a suburban Maryland facility. The governor responded by saying he fears the new arrivals would not be welcome at that particular site.
Emanuel policy chief Michael Negron told the Tribune that his administration is focused on facilities already equipped for residential use, including those once used as hotels and dormitories.
"We think that it'd be better to find locations that are already residential and wouldn't need a tremendous amount of work in order to get them ready and also not be as conspicuous," he said. "Ultimately, we want to make sure that the children are secure. The more visible the site, the more risk there could be extra security risk to the children."
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The mayors office says the federal government will pay for the youths shelter, education, health care, food, safety and social services
ll they be staying with the Mayor in Ravenswood?
Or perhapsthe major labor unions could provide or their next generation of members?
John
You got it, the news angle is that
What ... there was no room in Detroit ?
We are America , the unemployed or under-employed . Let someone else help .
Easy for you to talk . You are on disability . You have just said "go fuck yourself" to those that have to work for a living . Thanks for playing ...
I didn't . But you are trying to deflect from the fact that you said "go fuck yourself" to anyone who must work for a living . You quite an asinine and insulting lad .
OK , I accept that . What you don't realize is THAT is the implication of your above comment . You need someone like me to point that out to you ... unfortunately .
I don't think you have caught on to what an impasse is . You need to stop arguing before you call it , not after .
No, not all.
Some refugee care is paid for by the UN.
I read today that an unknown number of the children are being cared for here in Louisville. It's only fair that we contribute, as well.
Please try to get along gentlemen.