Crisis Demands Compassion

The Chicago Tribune published a letter to the editor by LWVIL President Becky Simon on January 19, calling for a coordinated and compassionate response to the current immigration crisis. Read the letter below.

Crisis demands compassion

Chicago Tribune • Jan 19, 2024

As snow finally began to fall across Illinois this January, our thoughts turned to those in Illinois who lack shelter and other basic needs for surviving our often-unforgiving cold winter climate. The League of Women Voters of Illinois holds the position that society should provide for the basic needs of its people — simple needs such as food, water, sanitary conditions, modest shelter and emergency health care. We need look no further than sparse food pantry shelves and homeless encampments to see that we are far from attaining that objective.

It is no less heartbreaking to see new arrivals to our country who are frightened, tired, hungry and traumatized by their journey, arriving with little but hope and the clothes on their backs and no place to go but the cold.

Because the LWV believes in federal immigration law that provides an efficient and expeditious system for legal entry of immigrants into the United States, we are frustrated by the persistent lack of will and cooperation in government to address our administrative deficiencies and to take other actions that address the underlying causes resulting in what has become a border crisis. We are dismayed that some local governments in our own state have begun to fill the gaps in policy with their own restrictive ordinances that lack compassion, creativity or effort to provide solutions. Whether intentional or not, such restrictions are perceived by some as permission to dehumanize immigrant arrivals with verbal abuse, mistreatment, disdain and hatred.

Human crisis demands a humane response, and providing one is a matter of will, not ability.

While governments across the state should not be forced to shoulder the responsibility for financing a national immigration crisis, making every attempt to secure funds from the federal government and private entities should be a first priority to make sure that the needs of affected individuals are met. A failure of our immigration system to be efficient does not absolve us of our responsibility to be kind and compassionate and to ensure that all people are treated fairly and equally under our laws, nor does our disagreement with those laws.

The League of Women Voters of Illinois encourages everyone to write letters to Gov. J.B. Pritzker and their lawmakers demanding a fairly funded and well-coordinated effort be implemented across all levels of government.

Illinois will be best equipped to meet this challenge with all of us working together.

— Becky Simon, president, League of Women Voters of Illinois