Oak Park Village Board declares emergency to aid asylum-seeking migrants while keeping town running
As the temperature dipped below freezing on Halloween night, migrants streamed into west suburban Oak Park in search of warmth and shelter, first packing a police station and then quickly finding refuge in a welcoming church.
Without prior warning, village officials scrambled late Tuesday to begin assessing the health and safety needs of the more than 100 new arrivals, who ranged in age from babies to senior adults.
Overnight, the suburb of roughly 54,500 became a microcosm of the larger nationwide migrant crisis, which has recently overwhelmed Chicago as well as other cities like New York, Denver and Los Angeles.
“I think what you’re seeing is just an evolution of us trying to respond to the emergency,” said Oak Park Village Manager Kevin Jackson at an emergency Village Board meeting Thursday that was called to address the influx of migrants.
The Village Board on Thursday unanimously approved an emergency disaster declaration allowing for “quick action” to provide additional aid and support for the migrants. The declaration — which is set to expire Dec. 4 — will also help reallocate Oak Park village staff members to help support migrants while also maintaining day-to-day operations, according to village officials.
The meeting in Oak Park offered a glimpse at one community’s attempt to balance a desire to help new arrivals in need while still maintaining typical resources for suburban residents — an equilibrium that many other cities have found difficult to strike.
Oak Park, which is about 9 miles west of downtown Chicago, is a self-described multicultural community “well-known for progressive values,” according to the suburb’s website.
On Monday, the Village Board authorized $150,000 geared toward helping migrants, on top of another $150,000 in grant money the village had recently received for similar migrant support.
Yet it’s unclear if these funds will be enough to meet the needs of the new arrivals, which are still being determined.
“I feel extremely concerned about ... deploying local taxpayer dollars to solve a crisis that we have now. We don’t have any ability to solve a problem of that magnitude,” Ravi Parakkat, an Oak Park trustee, said at the meeting.
Oak Park officials said local community organizers had brought the migrants to the west suburb from the adjacent Austin neighborhood, where the migrants had been living outside the Chicago Police Department’s 15th District station, as snow and blustery winds hit the Chicago area.
“They just wanted to bring people out of the cold, so they had identified our police station as a starting point,” said Danielle Walker, Oak Park’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.
Migrants are being temporarily housed at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Oak Park, and village staff members have been helping provide meals, medical care and other support while “a more permanent solution is coordinated,” according to an Oak Park statement released Thursday.
St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy Church in Oak Park has been providing showers, food and other assistance for migrants as well.
The disaster declaration approved Thursday “builds out simple things like logistics,” said Oak Park Deputy Fire Chief JT Terry.
“How are we going to get people things they need?” he said. “At the same time that this event is going on, the village still needs to operate.”
At the meeting Thursday, one village trustee raised questions about safety concerns that could come with families with women and children living with other people they don’t know, including men.
“There are, I think, safety concerns that rise to the surface very quickly,” she said. “How do we ensure safety in a situation like this?”
Oak Park police Chief Shatonya Johnson said staff members are monitoring the situation on-site and the Police Department is deploying an “off-duty detail.”
Another trustee asked if any migrant families were separated and needed to be reunited with relatives. Walker said there weren’t too many folks in that situation, and she described those who were separated from relatives as “older adults,” not babies or children.
“We have tried to the best of our ability to ensure everyone is with their families, and that is what we believe is currently the status,” she said.
Reactions to the disaster declaration on Oak Park’s Facebook page were mixed.
“At what point do we stop taking migrants into this country?” one person from another nearby suburb commented. “When do we hit the limit before we completely destroy this country.”
Others praised Oak Park’s attempts to help the new arrivals.
“I am proud of my town,” another person posted on the site, followed by a heart emoji.
Cities and suburbs across the country have been struggling with an ever-rising influx of migrants. So far, more than 20,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago in just over a year, since the first two buses of new arrivals sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pulled up at Union Station in August 2022.
While Chicago has erected more than two dozen temporary shelters, many migrants — most of whom have traveled thousands of miles from Venezuela — were still sleeping on the floors of police stations as well as outside those buildings.
Last month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker sent President Joe Biden a letter criticizing the federal government’s response to the crisis and urging more support.
Joliet Township last month withdrew its application for millions of dollars in state grant money for migrants due to resident blowback against the prospect of allocating tax money to help new arrivals.
“We see big cities dealing with problems resulting from busing foreign nationals in from our southern border, and we oppose establishing welcome centers like this in our township,” one resident told the town board at a recent meeting, amid applause.
As Oak Park grapples to figure out a long-term solution to its recent influx of migrants, the suburb has also received an outpouring of offers to help welcome the new arrivals. Many Oak Park residents have volunteered to translate as well as provide medical and wellness assistance; donations of meals and supplies have “been abundant” since early Tuesday, Oak Park’s statement said.
On Friday, Oak Park officials posted on the village website ways folks can volunteer or donate to help local migrants.
The church and village officials have requested that volunteers pause donations and other support made directly to the church site as “short term plans are now in place to cover the needs of these asylum seekers until other accommodations can be secured,” Oak Park’s statement said.
A message on Good Shepherd Lutheran Church’s Facebook page on Thursday noted that “many people have been motivated to help with asylum seekers at Good Shepherd.” The church did not immediately respond to the Tribune’s request for comment.
“What is needed is that we all begin building capacity to house the homeless — both asylum seekers and others,” the Facebook message said. “Find out who in your area is already engaged in this work.”
Pioneer Press contributed.
