CIOGC will be participating in the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) lobby day in Springfield on March 15 as part of a multiethnic, interfaith coalition of concerned individuals from many of Chicago’s communities to advocate for issues that protect the safety, livelihoods, and dignity of Illinois immigrants regardless of their document status.
ICIRR will be promoting a legislative agenda that features five items. Included in this agenda are the Immigrant Safe Zones Act and the Illinois Trust Act, two bills that would officially designate schools, houses of worship, hospitals, and other public spaces as “safe zones” (where law enforcement would be unable to arrest undocumented immigrants without a court-issued warrant) while preventing local law enforcement from collaborating with federal immigration operations as well and barring the use of for-profit private detention centers for individuals undergoing immigration removal proceedings. This legislation would help in securing immigrant communities and giving some peace of mind back to families and individuals.
Other bills on ICIRR’s legislative agenda aimed at enhancing the quality of life for immigrants include support for a statewide minimum wage increase to $15 an hour and a bill that would allow for undocumented university students in Illinois to apply for and potentially receive financial aid benefits. ICIRR will also be demanding that Springfield approve a line-item budget for vital social services for immigrants that have seen their funding withheld as a result of the longstanding budget impasse that has left the State of Illinois without an official statewide budget.
CIOGC has officially included the Immigrant Safe Zones Act as a key item in its legislative agenda for Illinois Muslim Action Day on April 27 and support collaborative community efforts to press our representatives in Springfield to support it.