Amid crisis, Latinos across Chicago are more unified than we’ve ever been.
What’s happening in Chicago is unlike anything we’ve seen before. These are unique, unsettling times. Every day, we hear and read stories from our neighborhoods that make us feel increasingly helpless. We see the effects rippling through our communities, especially among our local small businesses and street vendors who are the economic heartbeat of Chicago.
Numerous small businesses across Latinos neighborhoods, including Little Village, have reported revenue drops of 30% to 50%. This isn’t sustainable. If these trends continue, many of these beloved businesses, restaurants, panaderías and family-owned shops will be forced to shut their doors. If that happens, we won’t just lose a place to eat or shop. We’ll lose the cultural anchors that bring us together, that have been giving our neighborhoods and our city, life and identity.
But even in the face of crisis, there are powerful signs of unity and hope. Last weekend, more than 8,000 people gathered in Pilsen for the 18th annual Carrera de los Muertos, a tradition that celebrates Día de Muertos, a deeply rooted Mesoamerican celebration of life, memory and community.
Every year, this race brings people together to run and celebrate our culture while supporting local businesses. Despite everything happening across Chicago, this year’s event was our largest ever, a record-breaking show of strength and unity.
After the run, participants and their families fill cafes and taquerías — not only in Pilsen but in neighborhoods across our city — infusing much-needed economic activity into these communities. For many local business owners, the day of “La Carrera” is one of the highest-grossing days of the year.
That’s not a coincidence. It’s proof of what happens when community shows up for community.
Now, more than ever, we need to show up again. We can all play a part in helping our small businesses and street vendors weather this storm. Visit your neighborhood restaurant. Buy from your local vendor. Support the businesses that have supported us, those that have given us joy, celebration and connection over the years.
In times like these, when so much feels out of our control, this is something we can do. By investing in our local economy, we are investing in the people and places that make Chicago what it is — a city of resilience.
Let’s continue to stand together. Let’s stay unified. Let’s support the lifelines of our communities.
— Carlos Jaramillo, race director and founder, Carrera De Los Muertos
Abuses of civil liberty
On Oct. 31, I watched my grandson and about 100 joyful children parade in costume at their Spanish immersion preschool, Rayito de Sol, lovingly guided by their devoted teachers. Just five days later, federal immigration agents entered that same school without a warrant and dragged a teacher away before horrified staff, parents and crying children. It was an act of lawless thuggery that left everyone shaken.
Such abuses of civil liberty echo the very grievances that spurred America’s independence. The Declaration of Independence condemned rulers who made the military “independent of and superior to the civil power,” and the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution explicitly protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures.”
The militarization of civil authority erodes the rule of law and leaves citizens powerless when fundamental rights are trampled. Even more troubling is the silence of Republican leaders who stand by as immigrants and fellow Americans are treated like criminals by this administration.
As the saying goes, the opposite of good is not evil — it is indifference.
— John Brofman, Oak Park
Mass for detainees
We members of the Chicago Board of Rabbis are profoundly grieved at the denial of the Constitution’s First Amendment right to freedom of worship.
Auxiliary Bishop Jose Maria Garcia-Maldonado celebrated Mass on Nov. 1 outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview where federal authorities are holding detainees. The bishop sought to bring holy Communion to these detainees, but he was not permitted to do so. The right to worship God is a foundation of human civilization. It is a fundamental principle of American civilization. This denial of the right to worship must stop immediately.
The government must allow the priests of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to celebrate Mass for detainees held by the government.
— Rabbi Michelle Stern, president, and Rabbi Reni Dickman, executive vice president, Chicago Board of Rabbis
Labor should step up
In 1986, responding to President Ronald Reagan’s answer to nativist immigration restrictionists, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act. It included get-tough measures to control border crossings and imposed sanctions against employers hiring immigrant workers not authorized to be in the U.S.
However, the IRCA also included provisions for amnesty. One provision for “seasonal agricultural workers” allowed over 1.3 million workers to adjust their immigration status and acquire legal permanent status. Under the general amnesty provision, another 1.7 million workers adjusted their status. By 1998, about 2.68 million immigrants had achieved permanent resident status. Many continued on to acquire U.S. citizenship.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which, among other things, severely restricted access by nonnaturalized immigrants and their U.S.-born children to public assistance for a period of five years. He also signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which provided more border agents, more border wall construction and more penalties for unauthorized border crossings.
In February 2000, challenging the bipartisan assault on immigrants, the AFL-CIO Executive Council passed a resolution calling for amnesty for undocumented residents and for fewer sanctions against employers who hired them.
It is time for the AFL-CIO and all of labor to revisit and reaffirm the resolution calling for amnesty. For better or worse, the southern border is largely secured. For better or worse, customs officials can track and find all persons who enter through the ports. For better or worse, law enforcement can find criminal immigrant fugitives, and for better or worse, employers can validate a worker’s authorization for employment. Most of the “old” conditions and complaints about immigration reform have been dealt with.
The current movements in the streets and in the courts to protect undocumented immigrants are diluted by calls for “comprehensive immigration reform” or to “stop the raids and deportations” or to “get Immigration and Customs Enforcement out” or even to “vote for Democrats.” These are stopgap measures that fail to challenge the substance of President Donald Trump’s and previous administrations’ campaign against immigrant workers: to intimidate them, to drive them further into the shadows and to further exploit their labor.
A movement today for a general amnesty for all undocumented immigrants who live in the United States would call and unite millions to fight for a greater America.
— John Martinez, Chicago
The immigrant issue
The cruel scenes we see each day on TV of dark-skinned people being zip-tied, dragged to an immigration detention compound and then disappeared are changing attitudes about immigrants.
Recent polling indicates a significant shift toward more positive views of immigrants. A record high 79% of U.S. adults now consider immigration a good thing for the country. The percentage of Americans who want to see immigration levels decreased has dropped by half. The far right continues to build resentment by claiming that immigrants are replacing white people (the “great replacement” theory).
Arresting the parents of young children, the elderly and working men is cruel and unnecessary. Voters expected change from our president, not cruelty.
The president and his minions made removing immigrants sound easy, but the truth is that finding, arresting, detaining and legally processing that many people will be very costly to taxpayers.
Per the American Immigration Council, the total cost will be almost $1 trillion and will take 10 years. Did the president tell us? Did Congress know? This money is better spent maintaining affordable health care and Medicaid.
We were also led to believe that violent crime from immigrants is rampant. Research shows that crime in areas of large immigrant populations is no higher than those with small immigrant populations.
When I observe people in my community who are likely immigrants, I see them working, building homes and roofs and mowing lawns. We have all seen the exhausted and desperate families reaching our borders because they will do anything for a better life.
It is time to rethink the whole immigrant issue.
— Randy Parmec, Huntley
The summit is in sight
I have always been a patriot.
Perhaps it is the result of growing up in the shadow of Pikes Peak — where Katharine Lee Bates found inspiration for “America the Beautiful” — or singing “This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land” with other kids during the nation’s bicentennial. Perhaps it grew from seeing my mom wear two missing-in-action bracelets during Vietnam (only one soldier came home) or watching my students’ faces light up when they heard, for the first time, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Certainly in later years — after Columbine, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the killing of George Floyd — Americans’ freedom to courageously express sorrow, outrage and hope made me proud of our country.
Our current president understands patriotism in terms of hate. “Hate” is a strong word, easy to feel and hard to explain. The president is, however, clear about targets: dark-skinned immigrants (legal or illegal, adult or child); people dependent on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid; and anyone thoughtful enough to hear his howls of retribution and conclude he is no peacemaker. What to do with the hated? Put the “vermin” into prisons, concentration camps and airplanes departing the U.S.
Hate breeds hate. Essentially, good people of all political beliefs, left and right alike, have learned to fling words, dehumanize and (horrifically) shoot guns. Hate is, after all, an ancient human contagion.
The president is who he is. But he is not us. We Americans can reclaim healthy love of country by:
- Committing with intention and goodwill to the hard work of listening to each other.
- Rejecting partisan news feeds and artificial intelligence fakes.
- Tuning in to each other’s worries and dreams, whether we live in small towns or big cities; growing food, teaching the young, supporting the elderly or building roads; playing on sports teams or singing in the streets. Gathering, whether we attend worship services, in fellowship.
- Protecting the vulnerable.
Americans rarely agree about solutions to national problems. But we can agree, as compatriots, to learn from and with each other in civil dialogue.
At just 250 years, our United States is an infant nation. The summit of healthy, principled democracy still lies ahead, but it is in sight. The view from the top (like that from Pikes Peak) will be spectacular.
Let’s make that climb, for this is indeed a country to love. Together.
— Anne M. Windholz, Bartlett
Officers criminalized
What happened to us? No longer do we have free speech and expression of opinion or civilized debate these days. Lately, there is genuine vitriol for anyone with a differing opinion.
When did it become acceptable to criminalize law enforcement? Historically, this is how societies collapse.
Take heed, people.
— Mike Rice, Chicago
A sickle for Trump
The editorial cartoon (Nov. 6) showing New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani with a hammer and sickle on his clothing harks back to the evil McCarthyism of the 1950s. After all this time, are we still labeling as “communist” politicians who stand for fair housing rents, reasonable health care access and food for poor families and children?
Instead, the cartoonist should have drawn President Donald Trump wearing a hammer and sickle logo to honor his best friend, Vladimir Putin.
— Richard J. Aronson, Highland Park
Cartoon out of line
Regarding the Dana Summers editorial cartoon: The Tribune Editorial Board should be embarrassed. Zohran Mamdani is a democratic socialist, not a communist. The United Kingdom is a democratic socialist country. Capitalism thrives.
I can’t believe the editorial team is that stupid. It’s worse than misleading.
— Robyn Michaels, Chicago
Lies about Mamdani
I realize the Tribune Editorial Board is conservative, but Dana Summers’ cartoon in the Nov. 6 paper is a shameful example of repeating lies about New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. He is a democratic socialist, not a communist, and he won due to his commitment to making NYC affordable for all of its citizens.
Actually, regarding the editorial “Mamdani of New York is not the big news. Look instead to Spanberger in Virginia and Sherrill in New Jersey,” he is “the big news” because he ran a brilliant campaign against a sexual harasser, Andrew Cuomo, and the accused sex offender in chief Donald Trump.
I am keeping my Tribune subscription for the moment but am contemplating canceling it and using the money to fund truthful journalism.
— Susan Eleuterio, Highland, Indiana
Voice of sanity needed
Thank you, Tribune Editorial Board. I have never in my 70 years agreed so strongly with a Tribune editorial as I did with the Nov. 7 discussion of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement-precipitated debacle at the Chicago day care center (“‘Immigration enforcement’ and ‘day care center’ do not belong in the same headline”).
Please continue to be this voice of sanity during this avoidably terrifying time.
— Mary Kay Shutt, Chicago
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