The city of Aurora is partnering with the nonprofit Illinois Workers in Action to offer immigration-related services, including free legal help, out of a downtown city-owned building.
Illinois Workers in Action formed in 2021 primarily to support and educate workers, but recently the organization shifted its focus to address immigration-related issues, according to Aurora Chief of Staff Shannon Cameron.
The state of Illinois is among those providing the nonprofit with funding for legal aid, which is one of the things that will be offered through the organization’s new location, she said during a presentation at a special Aurora City Council meeting last week.
“We’re in a unique situation right now in our community,” Cameron said. “This is just one of the ways we’re trying to answer the community’s ask to us and demand for us to provide more resources.”
The organization will be able to provide visa and immigration assistance as well as detainee and deportation defense free of charge, Cameron’s presentation showed. She said that these are “complicated bureaucratic processes” that can be overwhelming for people, especially during a time when it is “dangerous to even be in our streets.”
The Chicago region, including Aurora, has seen a surge of federal immigration enforcement efforts in the last few months through what President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has called “Operation Midway Blitz.” Locally and across the region, U.S. residents and others have said they’ve been detained, protestors have said they were met with pepper-spray and other harmful tactics, and some businesses have said they are seeing significantly fewer customers, The Beacon-News and Chicago Tribune have reported.
Illinois Workers in Action can not only connect people to free legal aid, but its staff members can even drive people to and from their appointments so they don’t have to put themselves at risk, said Yoselin Escalona, one of the organization’s community outreach coordinators.
Ald. Juany Garza, 2nd Ward, said this was great since many legal offices are charging “so much” for these types of services right now.
The organization’s nearest office is currently in Bolingbrook, Cameron said, which makes it difficult for people in Aurora to access those services.
The Mayor’s Office gets questions all the time about legal aid, and while there are some “great resources” locally, there aren’t enough to meet the need, she said.
One of the mayor’s transition committees, the one focused on public safety, recommended the city create a department of immigrant and refugee rights — but that wasn’t possible given the city’s current financial situation, according to Cameron. So, she said, it was important for the city to find a way to offer these services without taking on the cost.
Illinois Workers in Action will also be providing the community with other services beyond connections to free legal aid. For example, the organization will be working to educate workers and businesses on their rights around interacting with immigration enforcement officers, according to a staff report included with the Nov. 12 meeting’s agenda.
Plus, the nonprofit will work with residents to find family members that have been detained, and it will coordinate with residents who are currently patrolling the streets, staff said in the report.
The organization will also answer questions about operations of the Aurora Police Department, which are sometimes mistaken for federal immigration operations, the staff report said.
According to Cameron, Illinois Workers in Action had already hired people to staff the new Aurora office.
At the meeting on Nov. 12, the Aurora City Council unanimously approved a six-month contract for the organization to lease office space in the building at 5 S. Broadway. The space is being offered at reduced rent, according to the staff report, which a draft of the contract showed was $300 per month.
Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, questioned why the item went directly before the City Council rather than first making its way through the council’s committee structure. A number of things have been skipping the typical process, he said, some that were time-sensitive and some that weren’t.
Aurora Mayor John Laesch said the organization had already been working in the city, and that this vote was just to give them a space to work out of.
Illinois Workers in Action community outreach coordinator Escalona said she already had been working personally with local families who have had their loved ones detained. She lives in Aurora and is willing to do home visits, she said.
For more information about the organization or to sign up for immigration services, go to: www.illinoisworkersinaction.org
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
