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A well-known Chicago activist has called on Donald Trump to “come here and clean up this mess,” denouncing the influx of immigrants and urging authorities to “send them all back.”
George Blakemore, 81, for the past 40 years has attended every public meeting he can, from the City Council to the Chicago Board of Education to the Water Reclamation District. Chicago Block Club reported.
Earlier this month, at a city council hearing to discuss putting Chicago’s sanctuary city status on the ballot in March, Blakemore spoke out against Chicago’s current policy toward immigrants.
More than 26,000 immigrants arrived in Chicago over the past year by bus and plane, and about 14,000 are currently in shelters. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent migrants from his state to Democratic-run northern cities in an attempt to pressure Joe Biden to take action. Cities are struggling to cope: A five-year-old boy died Sunday in a cold, damp Chicago shelter, and many are sleeping in the lobbies of O’Hare Airport or police stations.
Blakemore, who is black, said the situation was unsustainable.
George Blakemore, 81, is pictured Dec. 14 addressing a Chicago City Council meeting, where they discussed whether to vote on removing sanctuary city status.
Blakemore has attended public meetings in Chicago for 40 years and has become well known for his opinions.
“I am against illegal immigrants,” he said at the Dec. 14 meeting. “Send them all back to the other side of the Rio Grande.”
He shouted: ‘We are the only people in America who were enslaved. We didn’t come expecting and looking for something. When we arrived, we built this country with free labor.
“To see another group come here is shameful, it’s un-American.”
He asked the council: ‘What about the black children? Black workers? They compete with us.’
Blakemore continued: ‘I’m strictly defending black people. Call ICE for them.
‘Trump, come here and clean up this mess. The most corrupt city in the United States is the city of Chicago.
Another activist, who identified herself as Lorraine Lawrence, agreed with Blakemore.
“I’m not in favor of the sanctuary city,” he said. ‘People have waited years to come here legally. Don’t just come on the buses. This is ridiculous.
“Black communities on the West Side and the South Side have been singled out for funding, but they’ve never seen it.”
He added: “Is it fair to these communities who have been waiting for years?”
Lorraine Lawrence said she was against the sanctuary city declaration, considering it unfair.
Nelly Musajeva, a neurobiology student at the Dominican University, asked that the current policy be maintained
But others said the current sanctuary city status should be maintained.
Nelly Musajeva, a neurobiology student at Dominican University, said she was undocumented and it would be a mistake to expel law-abiding citizens like her.
Miwa Shimokogawa, a graphic designer and activist with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said the sanctuary city designation made everyone safer.
“It will sow more distrust between communities of color and the police,” he said. “In the meantime, it won’t do anything to stop the buses coming from the south.”
Council members then voted on whether to include on the March primary ballot the question: “Should the city of Chicago continue to maintain its designation as a Sanctuary City?”
They voted 31 to 16 against putting the question to the electorate.
Mayor Brandon Johnson had ordered his lieutenants to quash an attempt to put the controversial ‘Welcome to the City Ordinance’ to a referendum, and in November his floor leader was forced to resign for physically blocking opponents trying to access a prior vote on the issue.
Councilman Anthony Beale, who is trying to get the question on the ballot, accused his opponents of being afraid of the facts.
‘What are you afraid of? Let people have a voice? The truth?’ she asked after the vote.
“That’s all this question is asking for: letting people have a voice.”
Councilman Anthony Beale accused Democratic leadership of cowardice when his attempt to put sanctuary city status to a public vote was defeated 31-16 in the council chamber.
Mayor Brandon Johnson ordered his lieutenants to quash an attempt to put the controversial ‘Welcome to the City Ordinance’ to a referendum in Chicago’s March primary election.
Migrants who have arrived in the city after crossing the border with Mexico since August of last year have sought refuge in parks, police stations and the city airport.
The city expects to spend $300 million this year to deal with more than 24,000 migrants who have arrived in the city after crossing the border with Mexico since August of last year.
He spent nearly a million dollars on a tent camp in Brighton Park before tests revealed the soil was too poisonous to live in, and more than 3,000 migrants are still waiting for shelter as arctic winter temperatures begin to bite. nick.
City authorities have faced a furious backlash from residents as parks and public facilities have been seized to house newcomers who are still arriving at a rate of 700 a week.
About 300 still live on the floors of Chicago police stations, and conditions are so bad throughout the city that some have decided to return to South America.
Sanctuary city status means city officials are prohibited from asking questions about a person’s immigration status or disclosing it to federal authorities.
City police cannot arrest anyone solely for being an illegal immigrant, and the city will not cooperate with an investigation by immigration authorities unless ordered to do so by a court.
More than 560 cities, states and counties across the United States have declared themselves sanctuaries, and Chicago adopted that status in 1985.
Stunning images have shown crowds of migrants traversing difficult terrain and fording the Rio Grande on their way to the southern border.
O’Hare International Airport sheltered hundreds of migrants in a protected area as the crisis gained momentum this summer.
The meeting was to discuss whether the city should ask voters in March whether Chicago should remain a sanctuary city while it remains overwhelmed with more than 26,000 newly arrived immigrants.
But fears for the thousands of immigrants still without shelter are growing as temperatures drop and Chicago’s cold winter begins to take effect.
Sanctuary cities have been a favorite target of southern border governors, who have bussed thousands of migrants north as the migrant crisis has gained steam.
Johnson was one of five Democratic city mayors who headed to DC to plead with the Biden administration for $5 billion in federal funding to address the problem.
“Our cities need additional resources that far exceed the proposed amount to adequately care for asylum seekers entering our communities,” they wrote.
“Relying on municipal budgets is not sustainable and has forced us to cut essential urban services.”
Johnson accused his opponents of “pettiness” and claimed that a public vote on sanctuary status would do nothing to address pressure from immigrants.
“This is a crisis and, as I said, it’s not going to go away because people are upset,” he told reporters after the Dec. 14 vote.
‘Now, unfortunately, there are people who have used this as a way to execute their meanness.
“That kind of pettiness has caused the kind of conflict we are experiencing now.”
But Beale accused the mayor of cowardice.
“It’s a shame you’re all afraid,” he said at the town hall meeting.
‘Are we afraid that people will tell us that we are frivolously spending money on this body?
‘Are we afraid of people telling us we are going in the wrong direction?
“I thought everyone had something up their sleeve, but let me tell you, it’s a shame.”