Chicago advocacy groups, state officials rally for work permits for migrants

CHICAGO - Nearly two dozen immigrant advocacy groups, community organizations, elected officials, and a church are demanding work permits for all migrants in Illinois and across the U.S.

They rallied Thursday morning in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, saying that issuing work permits would solve the city's budget problems supporting the migrants and give the new arrivals dignity.

They argue without work permits, the city's some 180,000 undocumented migrants are vulnerable to exploitation. They're calling on Illinois and the federal government to issue work permits for everyone, including the thousands of people bused to the state from Texas and the more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants who have been working in Chicago for decades without work permits.

Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez said in addition to addressing the migrant crisis, all Chicagoans should have access to necessary resources.

"Whether you're Polish, Irish, Italian, Ukrainian, or Chinese, or anything, everyone else has made this country important, great, and beautiful because they've come from other countries and descended from immigrants. Every single one. ut the injustice that we see, every single person, not every single population has the same path to citizenship," said Ald. Andre Vasquez.

The call for granting work permits comes after the Biden administration expanded temporary protection status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the country.