Column: Community input sought by Aurora groups on how to help asylum seekers
In her three years as executive director of Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry, Shannon Cameron has talked to plenty of asylum seekers from Colombia and Venezuela.
She’s heard their stories of abject poverty and unspeakable violence, including those who have witnessed the murder of family or been victims of sexual assault.
In her position heading up the largest food pantry in the area, Cameron has also seen the generosity of this community time and time again.
“Aurora is full of beautiful people who would love for us to be responsive to the intense trauma” these refugees have faced in coming to this country, she recently told me.
The immigration mess facing this country and now our communities – in particular Chicago as busloads of asylum seekers have been arriving for months – is as emotional as it is complex. But at the heart of the issue, insists Cameron, are the people who arrive in this country after arduous journeys with little else but the desire to forge a better life for their families.
Which is why she was dismayed that in September the city of Aurora and Kane County both rejected the chance for state grant money to local governments that would welcome asylum seekers, despite her personal pleas to both elected bodies that this money could go a long way in addressing complex issues such as housing.
This rejection was hardly unique to the Fox Valley. Nor was the emergency ordinance the city passed in late December to deter buses from dropping off asylum seekers sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a decree that came five days after groups of refugees, most wearing light clothing, even flip-flops, arrived at the Transportation Center in Aurora with tickets or money to purchase tickets for the Metra train to Chicago.
But some are asking what this all says about Aurora, which bills itself as a sanctuary city that is proud of a reputation promoting diversity and inclusivity.
Sister Kathleen Ryan, executive director of the Dominican Literacy Center, which for more than a quarter century has worked directly with immigrants to help them assimilate into the local landscape, believes “we have a moral imperative to help these” asylum seekers because “they are our brothers and sisters and we share a common humanity.”
Unfortunately, a huge roadblock is the fact there is currently no system or leader “who is willing to step up and lead on the issue in our area,” insists Ryan.
“There are people of goodwill who want to help but don’t know how,” she said.
“We have wonderful churches, not-for-profit groups and individuals who seek to relieve the suffering that these asylum seekers are going through,” Ryan said. “We need to harness that energy for good.”
Ryan and Cameron represent a number of local leaders in Aurora who insist that as a nation and as a community we need to do better than turn asylum seekers away.
In a recent press release, the grassroots group Mutual Aid of Aurora, formerly known as Indivisible Aurora, described the city’s attitude as “callous and indifferent,” urging local elected officials to “immediately cease the indiscriminate expulsion of asylees” and to instead, “engage in constructive dialogue” with other organizations.
“We call for a comprehensive and humane approach that respects the dignity and rights of all individuals, regardless of their immigration status,” the press release stated.
How to do that remains the million-dollar question.
The Rev. Tim Piasecki, who retired 18 months ago as pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church and who for decades worked with immigration and homelessness in Aurora, admits to “mixed feelings” about the community’s role in tackling such a complex problem.
While the Benedictine order rule is to “receive all guests as Christ ... I don’t know what that looks like as policy,” he admits.
“My heart goes out to these people who risk everything to bring their families out of danger and poverty and are filled with such hope” because they “think so highly of us.”
Certainly the faith community has a responsibility to “meet people in difficult places and make their lives easier,” he added. But in order to do that, “churches need to be talking to churches, governors to governors, mayors to mayors.”
Joe Jackson, executive director of Hesed House, agrees the role of the faith-based community is critical. Even then, “there needs to be one lead church that takes point on it,” Jackson said, adding that, from what he sees at the Aurora homeless shelter, which relies heavily on local churches for resources, these congregations too are “strapped” for money right now, with volunteer and membership numbers down.
That being said, Jackson is convinced the state’s second largest city has enough resources to gather community leaders together to plot a strategy.
Which is what Aurora Mutual Aid is aiming to do in partnership with another grassroots organization, Aurora Rapid Response Team.
On Jan. 20, the two groups are holding a community forum at 2 p.m. at the Santori Aurora Public Library downtown to discuss concerns about “the absence of substantive efforts” to provide direct aid to address the plight of migrants or collaborate with local organizations to assist.”
The city defends recent actions, including its emergency ordinance forcing any buses coming into the city with one-way passengers and dropping them off to apply for a permit five days in advance.
The ordinance, passed Dec. 22, also provides for a fine of up to $1,000 to the bus companies and possible seizure and impoundment of the buses if the new rules are not followed.
“The ordinance is not for the purpose of penalizing migrants, rather, it regulates the way that these chartered buses operate in the city,” Mayor Richard Irvin said at the time the 9-1 vote was taken by the City Council approving the new regulations.
City spokesperson Clayton Muhammad says officials are well aware refugees have integrated into the community, not just because they are using food pantries but because their children are enrolled in Aurora schools.
The increase, however, is not overwhelming this community like it has done in Chicago.
“The busing issue had to take priority,” Muhammad insists, pointing out that the asylum seekers that came briefly to Aurora recently were headed to Chicago’s so-called “landing zone,” where they could get processed.
Those who want to return to Aurora would be “welcome,” he said, adding that if and when their numbers show a significant uptick, “we will have those conversations.”
World Relief Executive Director Susan Sperry, who acknowledges the emotions involved in this issue, is convinced that, while it takes “an entire community to create welcome,” the best thing for organizations and residents is “to support our local governments and their Emergency Response Units to help asylum seekers reach the Chicago landing zones where they are more equipped to help right now.”
But we also need to look ahead, she added, to when these newcomers “move out of shelters and settle into our communities. We know they will need our support.”
One way people can help now, Sperry said, is by assisting with donations or volunteerism through World Relief’s website. There, you can also find more information about its HOME Program, which helps churches and other groups support and foster asylum seekers financially or by “walking alongside” a family for six months.
Hesed House’s Jackson is convinced much can be done to help these refugees, but like Sperry, is convinced it must be well coordinated and well funded.
And if action is to be taken, Jackson added, “it makes most sense the city run point on it to avoid duplication of services and people falling through the cracks.”
The dire situation, he noted, is not because people are saying let’s forget about these asylum seekers. There is just so much work that needs to be done and not one agency or organization has the resources or time to take on such a “Herculean effort.”
In the meantime, says Luma Webster, executive director of Aurora Mutual Aid, there are refugee families who don’t have the basic needs to survive a winter in this area.
Because of mobilization efforts that began last year, “we are sitting on access to coats, jackets, medicine, food and immigration lawyers,” she said. “But we have not been able to get it out to those who need it most.”
One reason to convene the forum on Jan. 20 “is to let people know that, ‘hey we do have resources in Aurora, we are not hoarding them,’” said Webster, adding that the overall goal is “to educate more people on the issue, raise questions and seek solutions together.”
No doubt emotions are running high right now, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, say those I spoke with about how to respond to this crisis.
“They come from valid places ... they are very personal,” said Sperry, adding that wherever we fall politically - and it is important these political debates take place - “the question we all must ask ourselves is how do we respond when we see need in our community.
“So much is happening in really good ways,” she continued. “We have the opportunity to continue it.”
Cameron, for one, is confident the community will come through, as always.
“Asylum seekers have been coming for years to the pantry. Whether or not we accept a bus is not going to stop them from coming here,” said Cameron. “We are so diverse, there are so many connections to those fleeing other countries.
“They will be coming our way. And they will need our help.”
