Asylum-seekers and racial tensions in Chicago’s Black neighborhoods

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Crossposted from Livejournal

Over the past few months, Chicago has been dealing with waves of migrants from Central and South American countries, many of them bused in by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The African-American backlash to the  proposal to set up shelters in majority-Black Woodlawn and, more recently, majority-Black South Shore has been covered extensively on the news, but the migrants have been arriving in the Austin  community area as well.

As I’ve written before, Chicago’s Austin community area is pretty demographically interesting. It experienced White Flight later than most of Chicago (in the 1970s) and, due to multiple factors I won’t get into this post, Galewood mostly avoided it. There is the Island, the southwestern corner of the community area, which is also demographically mixed.

And then, there is the more gradual change that started in the northeastern parts of Austin and kind of spread out and downward. Puerto Rican and Mexican residents have been quietly moving in in growing numbers for over a decade, many of them simply looking for more affordable housing as gentrification pushed them out of Humboldt Park and Logan Square community areas. Per the U.S. Census date, the community’s Hispanic population more than doubled, going from 8.85% to 19.25%. And just walking around the community, it’s hard not to notice the growing number of Spanish-language surnames on mailboxes, and even some businesses catering to Spanish-speaking immigrants in the northeast corner of the community.

The pushback from the African-Americans who make up the majority of much of Austin hasn’t been super vocal, but it has been there. I’ve heard complaints and concerns at community meetings. Back in March 8, 2021, when members of the Westside Health Authority protested the city’s decision not to choose the organization to redevelop the historic Laramie Bank building, WHA executive director Morris Reed (and a few other protesters)  memorably complained that Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), whose ward includes the bank site, “sold us out to the Mexicans.” When I pressed him about what he meant, he said that, if Black people didn’t control the land in their communities, other groups would be free to move in.

(This part was cut out of my coverage of the protest, but I still have my original draft, and I might be able to find my notes somewhere)

Some of it is resentment, the belief that the city was investing more in “Mexicans” than it ever did in African-Americans. Some of it is just prejudice. I’ve read a piece on the Triibe trying to argue that it was just that first thing, but I’ve attended community meetings and events on the West Side. Some of the things I overheard, or even some of the things that were said to my face – if I presented those quotes without context, I’d venture to say that the majority of the American readers would assume they came from someone white.

Back in March, we hired a Mexican immigrant journalist to, among other things, contribute to Austin Weekly News. The fact that Francia speaks Spanish played a role in it (since we wanted to better cover the demographic changes in Austin) and they really came in handy when covering the migrant issue.

Back in April, we worked together on a piece about a church that has been based in North Austin for many years (and which has always been demographically mixed) helping them out.

Then, on the last Monday of May 22, a community safety meeting that Francia was supposed to cover in South Austin got cancelled without warning (as they sometimes do). She figured that, so long as she’s in the area, she should check out the nearby 15th Police District station – and found, to her surprise, that it was one of the police stations where the migrants got sent.

Francia spent almost four hours at the station, just talking to people and trying to get a sense of what’s going on and what they’re dealing with. This article was result – but not the end. Francia is determined to keep her eye on issue.

As I was listening to her talk about the visit, and then reading the article, I couldn’t help but think about how those migrants had no idea what they were dropped into. I mean, it was going to be harsh no matter what – most of them speak little to no English, have little to no American cultural context, and they will have to navigate the Kafkaesque hellscape that is the asylum application process. And now, they got racial tensions.

I wonder – and worry – about what’s going to happen next.