Statement of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Submitted to the Chicago City Council Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights 

Tuesday, July 23, 2024 

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is the largest state-based immigrant rights organization in the Midwest. Through our program partners across Illinois, we strive to provide dignified, human-centered case management for all people who need it, regardless of their immigration status or when they entered the country. While ICIRR and our service partners work most closely with immigrant families, we also believe that all people, including those experiencing long-term homelessness, returning citizens, and residents of communities that have faced long-term disinvestment, are worthy of the same dignity and respect and deserve the services they need to ensure self-sufficiency and the opportunity to thrive.  

Since fall 2022, we have been working with both city and state government agencies to provide short term case management services to individuals and families sent to Chicago by bus from the southern border by Texas Governor Abbott. As part of our advocacy, we have called on both the state and city governments to provide resources to support this work, and have asked that they allow community-based partners to provide services at shelters in accordance with our shared welcoming values. 

The 60-day eviction policy, unfortunately, puts families on the street at a critical time on their path to self-sufficiency, and makes our already difficult task even harder. It is paramount for agencies like our partners to be able to provide services from shelter locations, which provide needed stability for families as they navigate their new home city. This policy is especially unnecessary while the city has thousands of shelter beds available, and the pace of buses from Texas has slowed down. While we understand that can change, moving forward with evictions while beds are available will hinder the progress that many families have made. 

We join many of our partner organizations in asking the city of Chicago, and separately the state of Illinois, to permanently stop the 60-day eviction policy. This step will allow community based partners the opportunity to move more families towards self-sufficiency, and work together on the One System Initiative that will provide all people experiencing homelessness access to the resources they need.