ST. LOUIS — Immigration advocates here are looking to draw Latino migrants from Chicago, which has struggled to cope with thousands of foreign asylum-seekers over the past year.
Karlos Ramirez, an International Institute of ºüÀêÊÓƵ vice president, was in Chicago last weekend to meet with a deputy mayor and several nonprofit organizations to let them know about the ºüÀêÊÓƵ push to resettle some migrants here.
“It essentially will be somewhat of a relief valve†for Chicago if carried out, Ramirez said.
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ effort is focused on attracting people who came to the United States legally under the “humanitarian parole†program begun last year by the Biden administration. The program is limited to people from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti.
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Ramirez, the former CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan ºüÀêÊÓƵ, emphasized that his meetings were just exploratory in nature.
However, he said the International Institute has arranged for immediate housing for as many as 12 people and that he hoped that some migrants now in metro Chicago would fill some of those spots in the coming weeks.
Jerry Schlichter, a ºüÀêÊÓƵ attorney also involved with the institute’s effort, said that could eventually increase to 500 in the next few months and potentially more.
About 18,500 migrants have arrived in Chicago over the last year. Some have come after border states like Texas loaded people on buses and shipped them to Democrat-led cities.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, for instance, said that he has shipped 58,000 migrants to New York, Washington and Chicago, among other cities. He said the busing provides “critical relief to overwhelmed Texas border communities.â€
But Schlichter said Friday that the ºüÀêÊÓƵ effort isn't focused on people who have been transported on buses from Texas to Chicago; many have been Other new arrivals have been sleeping at
The reality for most of those people is they cannot get a work permit under immigration rules for five or more months, Schlichter said. “We are not going to make false hopes for people who already are under tremendous challenges,†he said.
Instead, the migrants targeted by the ºüÀêÊÓƵ effort must pass background checks and have a financial sponsor in the U.S. before they are accepted into the humanitarian parole program.
Once approved, they fly into an American airport and can stay for two years and get a work permit.
“We’re focused on those folks,†Schlichter said.
Schlichter and Ramirez said they didn’t have an estimate of how many of those migrants are in Chicago but that having some move to ºüÀêÊÓƵ could reduce the overall demand for services for migrants there.
They said the ºüÀêÊÓƵ program also would be open to some other Latino migrants if they become legally eligible to work.
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ program, a partnership between the institute and area labor unions, is modeled after a similar initiative led by Schlichter and regional business booster Greater ºüÀêÊÓƵ Inc. that settled more than 1,300 Afghan refugees here since 2021.
The new program includes funding for three months of free housing and six months of phone and internet services, English language classes, job training and job placement with unions, and help from immigration lawyers for work permits.
The program aims to repeat the long-term success of the resettlement of Bosnian immigrants here in the 1990s, as a way of combatting population decline in the area.
Ramirez said he met with Beatriz Ponce de León, Chicago’s deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, and that she connected him with groups working with Hispanic migrants. Ponce de León, he said, “was very cordial and very open to working with us.â€
The Chicago mayor’s office has yet to respond to a request for comment.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ office said it hasn’t had direct conversations related to the Chicago initiative but that the city government has had a longstanding cooperative relationship with the International Institute to welcome immigrants here.
Also, Jones this week appointed Gilberto Pinela, former communications manager for the Cortex Innovation Community, as director of the city’s new Office of New Americans, which will aid immigrants here.
Ramirez said while he is focusing now on Chicago, he also is likely to visit New York to let officials there know about the ºüÀêÊÓƵ program.
A the Biden administration's humanitarian parole program is pending in U.S. District Court in Victoria, Texas.
The suit, filed by Texas and 20 other Republican-leaning states, accuse it of being a “shadow†immigration system that’s letting in nearly everyone who applies instead of considering applicants case by case as required by law. Among the plaintiffs is Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
Supporters deny the accusation.
Schlichter said the court case and inevitable appeals by either side will take at least two years.
If the program ultimately is thrown out, he said, the presidential administration in office at that time will have to decide whether to try to remove people already working and building new lives here.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Updated at 3:55 p.m. Friday
