Roosevelt professor: Chicago mayor may find help for migrant issues at U.N.

[September 25, 2024]  By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has joined members of the Mayors Migration Council at the United Nations in New York.

Johnson did not have public events scheduled Tuesday, although his press office confirmed that he would join mayors from around the globe at the U.N.

La Vonne Downey, professor of Public Administration and program director of Health Science Administration at Roosevelt University, said the mayor might have addressed the challenges Chicago faces as a sanctuary city.

“He might also want to talk about how we have or haven’t done a good job with being that. If he’s being forthcoming, he will talk about some of the issues with being that kind of sanctuary city in the sense that people who are already here don’t feel that they have the same access to services that migrant populations might have coming in, even if those are provided by nonprofits,” Downey said.

Illinois policies prohibit local law enforcement from working with federal immigration officials to enforce immigration law. As a sanctuary city, Chicago has received more than 45,000 non-citizens from the southern U.S. border where communities were inundated with border crossers. Just in Illinois, the taxpayer cost over the past two years to assist non-citizen migrants in the state is more than $1 billion.

Downey said Johnson was part of a wider effort to get work permits for Venezuelans in the U.S. and may have wanted to address the issue at the U.N.

“He’s actually been part of pushing policy on migration, too, so he’s got his fingers in lots of different places,” Downey explained.

The professor said that visiting the United Nations could help Johnson deal with the city’s migrant issues, because many non-governmental organizations attend the U.N. meetings.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
Chicago Mayor's Office | Facebook

“He might be accessing more international non-government organizations that could give money or expertise or technical assistance to him. If you’re in the vicinity, you get to talk to those people. That may be a way to raise money or to get what we would call technical assistance, so they could help him with finding housing, job training, all of those kinds of things because they’ve done this globally,” Downey said.

Downey said Johnson won’t be the only one looking for aid.


“Every country except for the places people are migrating from is trying to address this issue. The E.U., probably, their representatives are also going to be at the U.N. because they also have this as a big, hot-button political issue,” Downey said.

Illinois U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Chicago, of Illinois addressed immigration issues in a social media post Tuesday. Jackson said the Biden-Harris administration has taken decisive executive action to stem the tide of immigrants coming across the southern border of the country.

Vice President Kamala Harris is running against former President Donald Trump. Trump has been critical of the Biden-Harris administration for more than three years of lax policies that lead to millions of crossings.