Letter: La Salle County Board member shares view on asylum-seekers

Our County Board has had several meetings discussing immigration. What I have heard from my constituents and personally believe is that in a rural area, we do not have the resources to process and take in a mass influx of asylum-seekers.

In regard to the migrant buses that may drop off people in the snow, our position should be to immediately help, getting them on their way and getting back to our families.

However, the County Board is not considering asylum-seekers. The resolution out of committee addresses illegal immigration.

I am against illegal immigration. So are you, I imagine.

I bet that regardless of political perspective we have 100% agreement that we all should be against illegal activities.

My question is why did we waste thousands of dollars in per diem and employee wages to reach such an obvious conclusion?

Some of my fellow County Board members have spoke about addressing homelessness and mental illness first before we would ever provide funds to migrants.

Well, we had an opportunity to address that issue in July. We had a presentation in front of the board with a proposal for $150,000 to address homelessness and/or mental illness. It could have been a success story.

The County Board took no action.

Unfortunately, hollow words about such humanitarian values and compassion too often are thrown about without any actual accountability.

I ask all of my colleagues on the board to use their positions to advocate for increased mental health care funding that would decrease dependencies on other vital social services.

One of my goals as County Board chairman is to address our local humanitarian concerns.

And I look forward to those compassionate board members joining me in advocating to provide more funding for mental illness, veterans and homelessness in future budget discussions.

Sincerely,

Brian Dose, of Ottawa, La Salle County Board