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from https://www.chicagotribune.com/immigration/ct-migrants-residents-business-clash-loop-20230926-kjr6wlo3pzerxb37ps5ncj4eae-story.html

As migrants clash near high-volume shelters, neighbors and businesses
grow alarmed: ‘We don’t feel safe’
By Laura Rodríguez Presa
Chicago Tribune
•
Published: Sep 26, 2023 at 5:00 am



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Migrants gather on the edge of Pritzker Park near a restaurant in the
300 block of South Plymouth Court in Chicago on Sept. 5, 2023. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Over the weekend, a fight broke out near the 1,163-resident migrant
shelter at the former Standard Club, 320 S. Plymouth Court, just the
latest brawl to be caught on camera outside one of the high-population
shelters downtown.

With the city buckling under the growing number of migrants — 12 buses carrying 560 more asylum hopefuls arrived this weekend — and no sign of
the influx slowing down, tensions among migrants, residents and business
owners are reaching a boiling point. The neighbors say they’ve witnessed frequent fights, loitering and other misconduct.

[ Volunteers say buses of migrants arriving in Chicago at increased rate ]

While most told the Tribune they fully support efforts to aid the
migrants, they have grown weary of the city’s solution to cram thousands
of people into highly trafficked shelters, and they’re concerned about
safety — not only for themselves, but for migrants, too.

“I don’t think any of us care that there is a shelter there. It is the
fact that there are zero attempts to control the situation and we don’t
feel safe here,” said Brandon Vulpitta, the owner of Brando’s Speakeasy,
a popular karaoke bar near the shelter on Plymouth Court. “Our clients don’t feel safe anymore.”

To be sure, migrants committing criminal behavior are a fraction of the
more than 15,000 migrants who have poured into the city since Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott bused the first group of asylum-seekers to Chicago last
year. Many of the people seeking asylum say they came for a better life.

Though crime stats don’t show a marked difference in and around the
areas of high-volume shelters from prior years, the violent altercations
and migrants engaging in lewd activity at Pritzker Park, kitty-corner
from the shelter on Jackson and Plymouth, are ever present, said George Liakopoulos, owner of several restaurants in the city, including the
Plymouth Restaurant & Rooftop Bar, which sits right in front of the shelter.

Most nights, large groups of migrants sit and stand while drinking at
the park and harassing female passersby, a scene that he says
discourages his patrons from visiting the restaurant, which is known for
its location and its unique view of the city. The number of visitors at
the restaurant, which is open from 4 p.m. to midnight daily, has
drastically decreased, going from 400 to 500 on Thursdays and Fridays in
the summer of 2022 to roughly 150 now.

“We want to help and understand the humanitarian crisis but this
behavior makes it extremely difficult,” Liakopoulos said. “It’s a big hit. Not just to me, but our employees, (who include) a lot of mothers
who depend on this job to feed their family.”

Now, there’s a camera near the shelter and police patrols throughout the
day, while shelter staff members pick up the garbage in the park and
around the shelter, he said.

People walk past as a police SUV is parked on the grounds of Pritzker
Park in the 300 block of South State Street in Chicago on Sept. 5, 2023.
People walk past as a police SUV is parked on the grounds of Pritzker
Park in the 300 block of South State Street in Chicago on Sept. 5, 2023.
(John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, outlined his concerns of alleged drug
exchange and prostitution at the family shelter being operated at the
Inn of Chicago, 162 E. Ohio St., in a letter he wrote to Mayor Brandon
Johnson in late June. Hundreds of his constituents and local business
owners contacted his office to express their worries, including dirty
sidewalks and witnessing migrants engage in physical altercations
outside of the shelter.

“I am sympathetic to the new arrivals’ situation and support Chicago
being a Welcoming City; however, these are serious concerns that need to
be addressed immediately,” Reilly wrote in the June letter.

At the time, the Department of Family and Support Services responded to Reilly’s letter explaining that the newcomers must sign a contract
agreeing to shelter rules and promising to be a “good neighbor.” The
letter also said that the department was collaborating with other city entities, including the Police Department to address his concerns, which included “specialized patrolling” and recommended beat officers.

But “despite heightened police presence around the facility, the
problems persist, especially those times of day CPD cannot be there,”
Reilly told Tribune this month.

Maria has been staying at the Inn of Chicago, one of the largest migrant shelters in the city, for several months. Recently, she said, the
shelter’s staff held a meeting to warn migrants that if the littering, fighting and congregating did not stop, they could be forced out.

But “some people don’t care; they leave their garbage everywhere, they fight inside and outside the shelter. It’s concerning to us because we don’t want to get kicked out of (the shelter) while we find an apartment
to rent,” said Maria, a single mother from Venezuela, who didn’t want to give her last name because she feared repercussions.

“We supposedly came here to become better, to progress,” she said. But allegations of drug use and violent altercations inside and outside
shelters are “unfortunately, are true,” she said. “We see it.”

“Es triste, porque por uno pagan todos,” she said, meaning that it
saddens her that most migrants who intend to do right may end up paying
the price for the wrongful behavior of a few.

[ A year in, Chicago’s migrant crisis exacerbated by City Hall and state delays, hefty contracts and questionable decisions ]

The reports of violence and criminal activity have added another
problematic layer to the city’s migrant crisis beyond the immediate
needs of shelter and food. While Chicago leaders last week rejoiced at
the news that President Joe Biden will grant temporary legal status to
hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who have crossed into the
U.S., advocates cautioned the process will take months to trickle down
to the migrants it will benefit.

“The frustration that is being voiced is the same one that you’re
hearing form the elected officials here, that in effect, if you don’t
have work authorizations, you’re not able to get people to work and find
a place to live, then, when you put 200 to 300 people — undocumented or
not — in one building with nothing to do, there’s going to be a
percentage of them that will get frustrated just being in there and they
will go outside in the area and engage in different activities,” said
Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, who chairs the City Council’s immigration committee, in an interview with the Tribune.

A cafe window reflects a group of migrants gathered in the 300 block of
South Plymouth Court on the edge of Pritzker Park in Chicago on Sept. 5,
2023.
A cafe window reflects a group of migrants gathered in the 300 block of
South Plymouth Court on the edge of Pritzker Park in Chicago on Sept. 5,
2023. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
But earnest efforts from migrants who want to find a job and a better
life can be overshadowed by reports of migrants loitering, littering and fighting with Chicago residents in public spaces.

Ald. Lamont J. Robinson, 4th, whose ward includes the shelter at the
former Standard Club, said that his office has worked directly with the business owners, along with the mayor’s office, police and the shelter
staff to ensure “a coordinated and comprehensive approach.”

“As we confront these difficulties head-on, we’re adopting innovative strategies to effectively address the unique issues we’re encountering,” Robinson said in a statement.

A recent change that has helped to manage the situation has been closing
the Pritzker Park at 9 p.m. rather 11 p.m. This way migrants are also encouraged to go inside the shelter earlier rather than wait for curfew,
said his chief of staff, Sabha Abour.

But as city leaders advocate and wait for federal response, “business
will continue to suffer tremendously,” Liakopoulos said. The issue is
not the migrants and their search for a better life, but the initial
decision by city leaders to place a shelter, with now more than 1,200
people, in the area, losing control of those living in there, he said.

“Though we have been working with the alderman, there is very little he
can do,” Liakopoulos added.

The Chicago Police Department declined to comment and referred questions
to the mayor’s office. At a news conference last month, Johnson said
that his administration is already addressing the concerns by business
owners and residents who live near shelters.

“We’re addressing all of it and the number of families that can help
grow our economy, quite frankly, that number is endless … what I always
say is that it is my responsibility as mayor of Chicago to bring people together and we’re doing just that,” Johnson said.

At the shelters, some of the concerns and allegations of activity
outside the buildings have been addressed with residents by hosting
meetings and informationals, said Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s
deputy chief of staff.

There are “know your rights” workshops and legal support that can help asylum-seekers understand the potential consequences if they are not
compliant with their immigration process. There are also training
sessions by the Cook County public defender and organizations under the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights where the overall
legal system and the criminal process are explained. These sessions are
also meant to show migrants that criminal activity can affect their
cases, Pacione-Zayas said.

As more migrants arrive in the city, efforts to address reports of
domestic violence and other issues inside the shelters have also been strengthened by working with the Department of Family Support Services
and its gender-based violence task force, said Rey Wences, the city’s
first deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights.

People inside the shelter can also access a grievance report process
that allows them to report unsafe or problematic situations. Then DFSS
works to address those issues, according to Wences. In some cases,
however, “there must be corrections,” to help some migrants understand
the city’s regulations, said Pacione-Zayas.

In late July, a group of migrants who had been operating a makeshift
barbershop at Pritzker Park were scolded and ticketed by police.

Erendira Rendon, vice president of immigrant justice with The
Resurrection Project, spearheaded efforts to welcome migrants in August
2022, when the first few buses began to arrive. She’s worked with the immigrant community in Chicago for more than a decade.

She said the manner and scale in which asylum-seekers are arriving in
Chicago is unprecedented, with city leaders and the migrants both facing
unique challenges.

The level of stress that the migrants face — allowed in the country
legally, but not allowed to work, living in a crowded shelter with no
obvious path out, competing for scarce resources — can foster frustration.

They seek ways to distract themselves or cope that may not benefit the
city or themselves, Rendon said.

“The issues that are facing the (shelters downtown) are no different
than issues that other shelters across the city are facing, where folks
live in very unstable conditions, they don’t have homes, their own
bathroom or any privacy, so it creates a difficult situation to manage,” Rendon said.

Despite the ongoing patrolling near the Pritzker Park area, on a recent
Monday during lunchtime, more than a dozen migrants stood around a man
carrying a bright blue cooler, in front of the Harold Washington Library
Center in Chicago’s Loop.

They were waiting to buy an arepa — a traditional Venezuelan meal — from their fellow asylum-seeker. Most live in a city-run shelter across the
street.

“Arepas, arepas,” Angel Nolasco chanted quietly, attempting to avoid attention from police officers who patrolled the area. Though police had approached him earlier to tell him that he could not sell food, he
continued.

“We’re not doing anything wrong; what else are we supposed to do?” he asked in Spanish.

But even after police warned Nolasco that he couldn’t sell food at the
park because it violated city regulations, he hid behind a wall and
continued selling.

“I agree that there are people who aren’t doing the right thing here,”
he said in Spanish, as he handed a plate of food to a fellow Venezuelan
migrant for $10. “Unfortunately, we all end up paying the price for that.”

Chicago Tribune’s Sam Charles contributed.

larodriguez@chicagotribune.com

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