CITY HALL — The mayor on Wednesday passionately defended efforts to give sanctuary in Chicago to 1,000 "child migrants" fleeing to the United States from Central America.
"If you have 1,000 kids fleeing violence in Central America, this speaks to who we are as a city in welcoming them," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a news conference after Wednesday's City Council meeting.
"These kids are fleeing violence," he added. "There are 1,000 kids. We are not only a city of big shoulders, we are a city of big hearts, and we will welcome them and get them on their way."
The mayor put out a release this week endorsing efforts to provide sanctuary to the children, who have been arriving in the United States only to be embroiled in the debate over immigration reform. From October to June 15, 52,000 Central American children were arrested trying to cross the U.S. border with Mexico, and an estimated 70,000 will be arrested at the border this year.
On Wednesday, Emanuel endorsed how the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, for one, has welcomed them.
According to the Mayor's Office, the federal government has approached the city about the possibility of creating a federally funded facility to be equipped with 1,000 beds for the "child migrants," and the mayor has responded by rallying groups like the Heartland Alliance and the National Immigrant Justice Center.
Emanuel compared it to the immigrant experience of one of his own grandfathers, who fled Moldova as a teenager to escape the pogroms. "Thirteen years old, by himself, not a word of English," Emanuel said, "he left the violence of eastern Europe."
Emanuel rejected the idea that the immigrants would draw resources from Chicago kids, citing how the city has expanded kindergarten, the school day, the school year and its summer jobs program.
"This speaks to the values of the city," Emanuel said. "I reject the notion that it's either or," he added. "The test and measure of this city is how we treat our children."
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for the children's care. Many have been placed with relatives already in the U.S. while waiting for an immigration court to decide their fate.
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