Governor Blagojevich joined by Maria Isabel Benitez celebrating Mexican history and culture at Mexican Independence Parade     

[SEPT. 12, 2005]  CHICAGO- On Sunday, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich will join hundreds of thousands of Mexican and Mexican-American residents of Illinois, as this community prepares to celebrate Mexico's 195th Independence Anniversary. The parade, which last year attracted well over 475,000 spectators, will run along 26th Street, the heart of the Little Village neighborhood, home to thousands of residents of Mexican descent.

At the parade, Gov. Blagojevich will be joined by Maria Isabel Benitez and her family. Ms Benitez is a hard working immigrant mom whose immigration case has grabbed newspaper headlines on both sides of the border. Ms. Benitez, who is a Mexican national, was deported on Mothers' Day in 2004 when she was seven moths pregnant, separating her from her husband Rodolfo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and their three children, all U.S. born citizens.

Gov. Blagojevich and other elected officials pleaded her case, and eventually Ms. Benitez received a humanitarian visa that allowed her to be reunited with her family and have her fourth child in the United States. The visa was renewed recently, after Gov. Blagojevich, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez, and several community organizations wrote letters to President George W. Bush, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and the Chicago office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.
 

The Governor has also asked the President to rescind the deportation orders pending against 17 other immigrant families. Since 2003, the Governor has taken executive and legislative action to help hard working immigrants residing in Illinois, including:

• Signing legislation that recognizes consular I.D. cards as valid forms of identification in Illinois, similar to a Secretary of State-issued state I.D.
• Signing into law a bill that allows for undocumented immigrants to attend public universities in Illinois paying in-state tuition rates.
• Signing into law a bill that protects immigrants from abuse by unlawful notary publics who misrepresent themselves as immigration lawyers and charge excessive fees for their services.
• Ordering the Illinois State Board of Education to implement a rule change, allowing the children of undocumented immigrants to attend public preschools.
• Launching the New Americans Initiative aimed at helping thousands of eligible permanent residents become naturalized U.S. citizens.

Mexicans and Mexican Americans constitute one of the largest minority groups in Illinois. Of the state's 1.6 million Hispanics (approximately 13% of state's population), it is estimated that as many as 1.2 million may be of Mexican descent.

Mexicans started immigrating into Illinois, according to historians, at the start of the 20th century, when many men fled the Revolution going on at the time in that country. Mexican immigrants settled in the Far South Side of Chicago and Northwestern Indiana to work in the railroads and other industries.

As Mexican immigrants became acclimated to their new surroundings, they started moving north, towards the Back of Yards neighborhood, and eventually the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods and other areas of Chicago's Southwest Side. Today, Mexicans and Mexican
Americans live in many parts around the state,
although a majority of them still call Chicago and
its surrounding suburbs home.

[press release - Governor's office]