Mayor Brandon Johnson is leading a multi-city push calling on President Joe Biden to let long-term undocumented residents work legally.
Johnson announced the effort to “challenge President Biden” to create a streamlined work authorization process for long-term undocumented immigrants and recent migrant arrivals alike Thursday while speaking with over two dozen top business, faith, labor, non-profit and immigrant rights leaders.
The “Work Permits for All” campaign Johnson backed hopes to enable the roughly 450,000 undocumented people living in Illinois — the vast majority Chicagoans who have lived in the city for an average of 15 years — to “work and support their families and contribute to their communities,” he said.
“We are going to continue to urge President Biden to use every tool that is at his disposal to support our new arrivals and our undocumented residents,” Johnson said. “This is an international global crisis that requires a federal response.”
The Chicago-led call for help has already found support from big cities like New York, Denver and San Francisco, Johnson said. A letter making the request is being circulated among a coalition of 300 cities in an effort to gain broader backing before it is sent to Biden.
The call comes as Johnson leads Chicago’s effort to house the over 38,000 migrants who have arrived since August 2022, many sent via bus from Texas by the state’s Gov. Greg Abbott. The mayor has repeatedly demanded the federal government support the expensive and otherwise “unsustainable” effort. However, little assistance beyond limited legal work permits for recent asylum seekers has materialized.
Despite Congressional gridlock on immigration, Biden has the ability to clear pathways to legal work, Johnson and the campaign’s other supporters argued Thursday. Work permits would give undocumented Chicagoans dignity and stability while allowing new migrants to take care of themselves, they said.
But Johnson’s call for help is far from his first. In a November White House lobbying effort made alongside four other big city mayors, Johnson urged Biden to share $5 billion in aid. The same coalition that met Thursday also demanded Biden allow “work permits for all” in December.
Asked Thursday why he thinks the repeated appeals to Biden will now lead to a policy shift, Johnson argued change will come with continued pressure over time.
“The organizing continues to grow,” he said. “The difference is today is a new day.”
Stories of people struggling without work permits were on display at the round table discussion.
Carlil Pittman, executive director of Englewood gun violence prevention group GoodKids MadCity, highlighted the precarious position a lack of work permits puts his wife’s father in.
“There is a constant fear of feeling expendable. To be a taxpayer that does not benefit from this country even by having a work permit is not a just system,” Pittman said.
Business and labor leaders described work authorization as a way to help Chicago attract businesses. Undocumented Illinoisans pay $1.5 billion in taxes each year, said Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition.
Johnson echoed the sentiment, flagging the potential for immigrants to fill in empty space and open jobs while growing Chicago’s economy. He cut a clear contrast with critics who have argued amid spending on new migrants that the city should spend more on struggling long-term residents, especially in Black neighborhoods.
“Migration is an opportunity,” Johnson said. “There are clear economic benefits to enabling immigrant communities to work.”
“There are forces here that are looking to divide us. Not under my watch. There’s enough here for everyone,” he continued.
Many speakers pointed to the diversity of Chicago’s undocumented and recent immigrant population. Though lots of people in temporary shelters come from Venezuela, Chicago’s undocumented population includes tens of thousands of Black people, Asian people and white people, they said.
jsheridan@chicagotribune.com
