Committee on Human Relations
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, the separation of children from their mother or father - or from both - is a violation of the human rights that should be afforded to all children; and
WHEREAS, the just struggle to protect the right of children to stay with their families is at the core of the struggle in this country to complete our imperfect but developing democracy from its original perpetration during the genocide of the native American and the holocaust of slavery when children were ripped from their mother's breast and the guidance of their fathers; and
WHEREAS, this struggle is inspired by both our spiritual, cultural and democratic ideals of what is right and just; and
WHEREAS, in the reality of the failure of the U.S. Congress this City Council had urged Barack Obama, then President of the United States, to issue executive orders to at least temporarily prevent deportations that separate families with U.S. born children or DACA eligible children;
WHEREAS, the alternative to separation is the de facto deportation of U.S. citizen children, and children raised side by side with U.S. citizens for the greatest part of their young lives, to countries they know nothing about and in which they are placed in the most disadvantaged and dangerous positions, denying their rights as U.S. citizens and their universal rights as children; and
WHEREAS, President Obama did indeed issue executive orders which provided the deferral of deportation and the provision of work permissions for undocumented individuals brought to this country as minors and which also provided the same deferrals of deportation and working permissions to undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children or such minors and further established the practice of prosecutorial discretion to defer such deportations in order to prevent the unjust separation of families or the de facto deportation of U.S. citizen children until the Congress could arrive at a permanent solution; and
WHEREAS, the courts reached no final resolutions on the constitutionality of these executive orders, and while the Congress has not reached any comprehensive solution for millions of families caught in the system of undocumented labor which has operated for decades in this nation; and ¦
WHEREAS, in spite of the continuing threat of injustice to children, the current administration has cancelled those executive orders without Congress having established any alternative; and
WHEREAS, these provisions previously adopted to protect the right of children to have the support of their parents represented a just and much needed temporary adjustment and should be restored by act of Congress; and
WHEREAS, those in government who looked the other way at this system, and those companies who used undocumented labor and those who benefitted from the billions of dollars collected from the paychecks of undocumented workers to fill the coffers of social security have been asked to pay no price; and
WHEREAS, the children of those undocumented workers, who came and worked honestly in this country, formed families and raised children, are the least culpable and the most vulnerable victims of the system of undocumented labor and are being forced every day to endure the unimaginable pain and damage of family separation or de facto deportation; and
WHEREAS, those parents with U.S. citizen children who were given protected status through prosecutorial discretion and who reported regularly to ICE as they were required were among the first to be deported under this administration; and
WHEREAS, there has been a 250% increase over the last year in deportations of those with no criminal records, most of which have families and children, with the likelihood that these numbers will continue and increase; and
WHEREAS, at least 325,000 Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, and Haitians have lived in this country for many years and have established families with 273,000 U.S. born citizen children, as well as other children brought here at an early age (22% of original entrants were under 16), who have known no other country, now face the cancellation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and are being deported, separating children from their parents or de facto deporting U.S. citizen children; and
WHEREAS, U.S. policies have contributed to the continuing and still existing conditions of instability, poverty and violence in those countries to which these children of TPS families should not be morally. returned to endure; and
WHEREAS, the psychological, educational, health, economic and mortality effects of separation from their parents or their de facto removal from this country are documented violations of the human rights accorded universally to children; and
WHEREAS, the separation of families at the border for those seeking asylum is a violation of human rights; and
WHEREAS, the passage of a clean DACA bill will further prevent the separation of families.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor and City Council of the City of Chicago resolve this day that Congress should pass legislation that provides the right to visas for the undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children or DACA eligible children and TPS recipient parents with U.S. citizen children or children brought here before the age of sixteen which allows them and their children to stay and work legally in this country to provide for the economic, physical and spiritual security and development of those children; and
BE FURTHER IT RESOLVED, those visas and work permits should be issued on proof that there are no criminal convictions of these individuals and proof of the existence in residence of U.S. citizen or DACA eligible children under the age of 25; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that these Visas should be renewable every three years on proof of the continued verification of the original conditions of issue; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council of Chicago urge our congressional representatives to pass such legislation with all deliberate speed to stop immediately this violation of the human rights of children and their rights as U.S. citizens and children of God; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that five million U.S. citizen children and two million children brought to this nation as infants, and raised here among U.S. citizens, should not be deprived of the sacred right to family and parental guidance and support because of the nation's political paralysis in correcting and taking responsibility for past mistakes of immigration policy and practice, but, instead, should be
protected and afforded the most basic human right to God's love, which is afforded through the creation of family and guaranteed by the innate and irreplaceable responsibility of parents; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Congress should pass a clean DACA bill that gives eligible recipients immediate security and a road to citizenship; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the city of Chicago urges the Congress to maintain and extend family based legal immigration; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the city of Chicago support every effort be made to establish a civic organization and local government task force between the U.S. and the five countries of Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to seek and propose solutions to the current and underlying conditions of migration; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City of Chicago join with other cities to seek the good offices of the United Nations to bring about the study and dialogue necessary to propose solutions to the migrant crisis between the five nations in Central America and the Caribbean, and Mexico with the United States.
Roberto Maldonado Alderman, 26th Ward
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