Migrant crisis gives Chicago diversity a stress test

America’s latest migrant crisis has come to Chicago and, in an unfortunately Chicago-style way, threatens to reopen old divisions over race, ethnicity, and whether new arrivals might be getting helped before others in need who are already here.

- Clarence Page

With migrant families sleeping on the floor of police stations and the city running out of space and resources for the unhoused, the City Council approved $51 million in migrant aid last week after considerable shouting and gnashing of teeth.

A week earlier, three conservative aldermen who opposed the measure temporarily blocked a final vote during Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first City Council meeting on May 24. This time, after it was reintroduced during last Wednesday’s meeting, the appropriation passed 3413.

But not before opponents in the council gallery repeatedly booed backers of the funding measure during the public comment period and during the formal debate, despite Johnson’s efforts to restore decorum.

Emotions ran high as citizens and activists expressed anger and fear over the possibility that millions of dollars might be spent on temporary shelters for new migrants before doing more to address existing problems of the unhoused.

But as the debate ended, I appreciated South Side Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, for pointing out tearfully that this dispute should not be seen as a conflict between Black Chicagoans and the mostly South American migrants. “Hurt people don’t hurt people,” she said repeatedly.