Race, gender and crime were only a few of the issues discussed during the Human Services Committee’s Monday night meeting.
After hours of public comment from more than 20 different speakers, the committee postponed action on a resolution which calls for “humane and just treatment for immigrants and their families” and “comprehensive immigration reform” on local and federal levels until its next meeting. The aldermen requested that the city’s Law Department analyze three drafts of the resolution so the committee could act on the issue at its March 3 meeting.
The proposal was first based on a similar resolution passed by Cook County, said Ald. Edmund Moran (6th), who introduced the issue in the Evanston city government after meeting with a group of concerned citizens for more than a year.
The most contentious element of Moran’s proposal was a statement that calls on city officials and police officers to ignore an individual’s immigration status.
“Be it further resolved, that it shall be the policy of the City of Evanston Police Department not to assist in the investigation of the citizenship or immigrant status of any person,” the resolution reads.
Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) presented an alternative resolution at the meeting that calls on only the federal government to reform its immigration policy, instead of Evanston. Baptiste said it’s not the local government’s responsibility to deal with the issue.
Regardless, any of the resolutions are widely considered to be symbolic statements since Evanston police officers do not currently investigate immigration status.
Instead, much of the debate at Monday’s meeting focused on the consequences of Evanston becoming a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants.
Oak Park resident Dawn Marie Mueller, coordinator of the Illinois Citizen Security Network, said she fears that a wave of illegal immigrants would overload the city’s social programs and impact local crime. The council has the opportunity to prevent a terrible tragedy by defeating the resolution, she said.
Mueller was supported by Rosanna Pulido, a Hispanic field representative for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, who asked the council to support comprehensive immigration enforcement as opposed to comprehensive immigration reform.
“The media ignores people of Mexican descent who want to see the law enforced,” Pulido said.
Several of the residents who supported the resolution were parishioners of St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church, 806 Ridge Ave.
“People are living in the shadows,” said Margaret Feit-Clarke, who spoke on behalf of “scores of parishioners who have no voice.”
Feit-Clarke said she was aware of individuals who turned down job promotions and victims who failed to report a crime out of fear that they might draw attention to their illegal status.
Members of Evanston’s immigrant community also expressed their views.
“We have done nothing wrong,” said Jose Sanchez, a Mexican immigrant and longtime Evanston resident. “We try to live a good life for us, for our families, for our children.”
Human Services Committee Chairman Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) said he does not expect the resolution to come before the City Council until April. The committee will continue discussion over the issue at their next meeting, 7 p.m. March 3 at the Evanston Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave.
