As McLean County considers a ban on funding for migrants who are bused here, an immigration advocate says dozens of migrant families already have settled in McLean County.
Charlotte Alvarez, executive director of the Immigration Project based on Normal, said between 75 and 100 people transported north from the southern border since 2022 either got off a bus in McLean County, or came here after leaving a migrant processing center.
She said that's a sign the community can support more asylum seekers if they came here.
“It hasn’t broken anything,” Alvarez said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas, adding the nonprofit has provided the migrants prepaid debit cards through the state of Illinois to cover one-time crisis expenses, or VTTC [Victims of Trafficking Torture and Other Series Crimes] benefits.
This week, McLean County Board member Chuck Erickson proposed a resolution to “not accept or provide taxpayer-funded services to migrants sent into McLean County by any other state or municipality.”
Erickson said the community would not be able to sufficiently vet migrants to be sure they do not pose a security threat, and they would potentially drain county resources.
Alvarez called McLean County’s proposed ban “extremely disheartening.”
“If we get past the immediate knee-jerk reaction and we start really thinking and planning, we could have a plan that really helps people,” she said.
She also took issue with guidance provided by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency to simply send any transported migrants to the state’s new migrant intake center in Chicago.
Given the community’s housing shortage, Alvarez acknowledged housing options could be limited.
“I would hope that as a community our response of how many people can we open our community to is more than zero,” Alvarez said, but added the county also should consider the economic potential asylum seekers can bring once they are approved for work.
Immigration Project staff spent Wednesday helping migrants apply for work permits at a clinic in downtown Chicago. The clinic is a short bus ride from the state's new migrant intake center, where some seeking help have been sleeping in buses for weeks.
Alvarez said the clinic has been helping about 100 migrants daily, four days a week. She said with more volunteer and pro bono help, the Immigration Project would like to upscale the services it offers in McLean County.
