Protesters shut down part of West Ida B. Wells Drive in the Loop Wednesday morning, calling on Sen. Dick Durbin and Congress to deliver citizenship with chants such as, “Get up, get down, Chicago is an immigrant town.”
The protest took place in the road in front of Chicago’s U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services Field Office at 101 W. Ida B. Wells Drive.
In the center of the protest, which blocked four eastbound lanes of traffic, eight people sat around a black banner with bold yellow lettering that read: “Durbin & Congress, Deliver Citizenship NOW.” Some attendees lined the streets carrying signs, while dozens more sat evenly spaced throughout the block.
“We want nothing less than a pathway to citizenship in this year’s Build Back Better package,” said Glo Choi, a community organizer with the HANA Center, a Chicago nonprofit fighting for the critical needs of Asian Americans and multiethnic immigrant communities. “And we want citizenship for all, which we’ve always been fighting for and we’ve refused to accept anything less.”
Chicago police spokeswoman Kellie Bartoli said officers on the scene had given orders to disperse. But rather than physically arresting the 26 people police encountered, officers issued administrative notices of violation. Police also cited four vehicles for blocking traffic.
Choi received one such notice at the protest. He said officers pulled protesters away, one by one, and detained them briefly before issuing the citations.
Choi said that he is undocumented, as is his family, and they have waited too long for President Joe Biden’s administration and Congress to make citizenship for all a priority.
“To say that we’re disappointed is an understatement,” Choi said. “The whole movement has been building up to this moment, which is that we don’t want temporary protections. We don’t want to fight for something that could just be taken away by the next administration or Congress.”
According to 2019 data from the Migration Policy Institute, there are more than 11 million people living in the U.S. without documentation, roughly 425,000 of whom reside in Illinois.
The Biden administration’s current Build Back Better framework includes a $100 billion investment to provide “relief to millions through reconciliation, and making enhancements to reduce backlogs, expand legal representation, and make the asylum system and border processing more efficient and humane.”
On Tuesday, Sen. Durbin weighed in again on the Build Back Better framework, saying the spending package would finally allow the country to reform its immigration system.
“Sen. Durbin has been fighting for immigrants and immigration reform for as long as he has been in Congress and he will not stop,” Dubin’s office said Wednesday in response to the protest.
Because the bill is being pushed through as a budget reconciliation, which prevents filibusters in the Senate, the primary effects of the bill must revolve around spending and tax laws.
There have already been two Democratic immigration proposals to the $1.75 trillion reconciliation package, both of which were struck down by the parliamentarian, who advises on the Senate’s rules, saying it did not fit into the rules around budget reconciliations.
Choi said one of the key purposes of the protest was to urge Durbin and other members of Congress to fulfill promises made to their constituents.
“Frankly, this is not what we were promised by elected officials’ campaigns stating their positions on immigration,” Choi said. “It’s absurd that … when push comes to shove, when the time for action comes, we are always on the chopping block.”
The demonstration was organized by numerous Chicago immigrant rights and neighborhood groups, including the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the HANA Center, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago and the Southwest Suburban Immigrant Project.
