DeKalb City Council backs plan to regulate buses carrying migrants

DeKALB – In front of a packed public room Thursday, the DeKalb City Council put its initial support behind a plan to regulate unexpected migrant arrivals with fines on bus drivers found in violation of city code, although a final vote still is needed.

The council voted 5-1, with 1st Ward Alderwoman Carolyn Zasada casting the lone dissenting vote. Fifth Ward Alderman Scott McAdams was absent. Sixth Ward Alderman Mike Verbic attended the beginning of the meeting but was not present for the council’s vote. He had a prior scheduled 6th Ward meeting.

A final council vote is needed, and is expected at the regular council meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the DeKalb Public Library, 309 Oak St., officials said Thursday night.

The proposed ordinance has prompted controversy at the elected level. Zasada called the plan “unwelcoming” Wednesday. Mayor Cohen Barnes said it’s meant to target the “transportation system abandoning people in the cold.”

“This ordinance is about punishing the bus companies that would allow something like that to happen,” Barnes said Thursday. “How in the world can you take a busload of people, people’s families and dump them like cargo along the side of the road? In my eyes, we need to go after them. We need to go after them with all the resources that we possibly have.”

[ DeKalb alderwoman blasts city’s proposed migrant ordinance as ‘unwelcoming’ ]

City officials told the Daily Chronicle on Tuesday they weren’t aware of any instances where migrants arrived in DeKalb recently.

“We’re having trouble catching speeders on Fairview Drive and Ridge [Drive],” Zasada said Thursday. “How are we going to impound buses? Isn’t this just an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, actually we’re going to impound it. So, make sure you go somewhere more discreet.’ I’m just saying this is not a solution. This is not how I want to see people treated. This is not the side of history that I want to be on.”

Residents react

The 90-minute special council meeting saw a dozen residents share their views before a first-round vote. Many offered support or opposition to the plan that city staff have said they hope would deter the arrival of unscheduled bus drop-offs.

DeKalb resident Joe Gastiger urged the council not to rush into taking action on the migrant ordinance, saying he doesn’t see an imminent emergency.

“What I’m afraid of is that people at risk are going to be ping-ponged around from one town to another,” Gastiger said. “Are we really going to ask that each little municipality in the state of Illinois have some comprehensive policy about how it is that we handle people that are coming here for sanctuary that have already been approved for entry into this country that are not illegal?”

DeKalb resident Bill Feithen said he supports the city’s proposed migrant ordinance.

“I’m grateful that the council and city staff is looking to be prepared for buses coming to this community and for people coming off those buses needing an enormous amount of help,” Feithen said.

City officials have argued that the greater DeKalb area doesn’t have enough resources to properly house and care for large groups of people arriving without warning.

DeKalb resident Cristopher Luna Trujillo said he’s against asylum seekers accepting aid.

“Me as an immigrant, I got here when I was 10 months [old,]” Trujillo said. “I never got any help. We never got help. Why would we help them? My family suffered a lot back in 2014, especially when my family got divided. … Why would we give them money to send them to Chicago? Where is that money coming from? Is that money coming from us? How are we paying for their meals?”

On Nov. 16, Gov. JB Pritzker announced a plan to allocate $160 million through the Illinois Department of Human Services to help aid asylum seekers headed to Chicago. The funds, according to the governor’s office, are mostly allocated to the city of Chicago, however.

DeKalb city staff said they’ve made preparations in the event migrant passengers arrive to town without arrangements for food or shelter.

“Staff has engaged with other government officials, social service agencies and hospitality businesses to arrange temporary accommodations; however, these local resources would be expended quickly,” city staff wrote in a social media post before the meeting. “In the upper Midwest, the City of Chicago remains the best location for emergency housing and other assistance.”

Sam Lopez suggested that DeKalb city leaders table the matter, saying what’s before the council is what she called a “cookie cutter” ordinance. She said she believes the ordinance goes against a 2018 city proclamation signed by former Mayor Jerry Smith. The proclamation declared DeKalb as welcoming to all regardless of immigration status, documentation or not.

“DeKalb has done better,” Lopez said. “This makes me sad. I think about the Welcoming Proclamation of [2018] when we said we were going to welcome folks and we were going to be a welcoming community. We never said sanctuary. That wasn’t it. We were going to be welcoming and we were going to open possibilities to immigrants, to families, to community members.”

City Manager Bill Nicklas disputed Lopez’s account.

“This is not a cookie-cutter ordinance,” Nicklas said. “There are some common elements here, but the seizure of the bus, the higher fines are to give the companies a moment of pause when they’re going through their plan.”

The city’s proposed ordinance states that police officers may seize and impound commercial vehicles, in accordance to municipal code. It also stipulates that violators may be subject to a $1,000 fine for each passenger arriving on an offending commercial motor vehicle.

Migrants arriving in northern Illinois cities bound for Chicago is the latest in a trend seen over the past year as Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration transports groups crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to Democratic-led cities, The Associated Press reported.

Buses carrying asylum seekers and migrants have been reported in many areas across northern Illinois and those with Metra stops, including Joliet, Elburn, Woodstock and Kankakee, among others.

When asked for his opinion on the city’s proposed ordinance, State Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, said Thursday he applauded the mayor for having the foresight to help put together the city’s plan.

Keicher is the ranking Republican spokesperson on the Illinois House Immigration and Human Rights Committee.

“Their ordinance seeks for any bus that’s dropping off migrants to give due and proper notice, so that the city can arrange a place to stay, food and any necessary transportation or other care,” Keicher said. “I think that’s entirely fair because that’s almost exactly what the city of Chicago, the city of Rosemont, the city of Aurora have all done, because we saw the mistakes that were made when Chicago didn’t have that framework and these folks were being dumped and staying in police stations, at O’Hare Airport, in these vacant buildings and lots. What DeKalb is doing is they’re putting a framework in place so that they can be prepared if they have 30, 60, 300 migrants coming in.”