(Bloomberg) -- In Democrat-run Chicago, where the party is gathered to nominate Kamala Harris for president, a fight over migration has roiled local politics — pointing to a key vulnerability for her campaign.
Donald Trump is hammering Democrats over the unprecedented flow of migrants into the US in the past couple of years. Lately he’s tried to spotlight the impact on Black voters in particular, with a warning that newcomers are taking so-called “Black jobs” — a claim that’s largely fallen flat, and in some instances drawn derision.
In Chicago, though, there has been a different kind of tension brewing in Black communities over migration. It’s focused not on job markets but on strained public finances — as neighborhoods unable to win enough funds for their own projects balk at the checks written to shelter new arrivals.
All of this highlights some risks for Harris as immigration becomes a top-of-mind election issue — not just in solidly blue Illinois, but in swing states too.
Trump, the GOP nominee, generally has an edge in polls on the question of who’d handle it better. He’s seeking to label Vice President Harris as a failed “border czar” under President Joe Biden, and make the issue resonate as widely as possible. That includes among African American voters, a group where Harris — seeking to become the first Black or Asian woman to lead the country — enjoys overwhelming support.
GOP politicians have long portrayed Chicago as a microcosm of Democratic failings, pointing to crime statistics, corruption and economic woes. Now they’re adding the city’s handling of its migrant crisis to the list.
The Harris campaign referred to the candidate’s vow to “fix our broken immigration system” by supporting border reform, creating paths to citizenship and reviving an immigration reform blocked by Republicans. At a roundtable with Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the convention Tuesday, Democratic North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said Harris is someone “who actually wants to solve the problem, and has tried to solve the problem.”
“We need to be compassionate about it,” Cooper said. “I think she will be so, but she understands the importance of strong borders."
More than 46,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since 2022, including almost 37,000 bused north by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. A widely expected surge of buses bringing more migrants during the convention hasn't materialized, however, and about 5,500 people currently live in 17 active shelters run by the city and state governments.
Chicago is estimating funding plans of more than $400 million on the migrant crisis. That’s piling pressure on the city’s budget. The shortfall is projected to widen to almost $1 billion next year, exacerbating a decades-old fight over resources. Local leaders — beset with demands for cash to address other issues like homelessness, crime and economic development — are having to make tough choices.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker acknowledged the ongoing struggle for resources in neighborhoods with high poverty rates and insufficient job opportunities. In an interview, he also stressed that since taking office in 2019 he has championed investments in small business while also raising the state minimum wage. It will reach $15 an hour next year, which Pritzker said has helped particularly Black female employees.
Faced with a “crisis that was foisted upon us by another state's governor,” the state had to take action, Pritzker said. “We stepped up to do the right thing. All we did was provide basic food, clothing and shelter. It isn't like we were handing out tens of thousands of dollars to people.”
Over the past four decades, the decline of industries like manufacturing in traditionally Black parts of the city — accompanied by mass job losses and rising crime — has led hundreds of thousands of African Americans to move out. Some 29% of Chicago residents identify as Black now, compared with 40% back then.
‘Historical Disinvestment’
Alderperson Desmon Yancy, who represents the city’s fifth ward, described voting for a $70 million measure to care for migrants as a necessary but painful decision.
“This investment felt like a strong-arm robbery when you consider the meager investments Black leaders have asked for and been denied,” Yancy wrote in a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed. “If we can do it for one community of color, we can surely do it for our native Black residents.”
The sentiment was echoed at a July 23 meeting of the council’s committee on immigrant and refugee rights by fellow Alderperson Jessie Fuentes: “For the last year, we’ve had to take tough votes, have had to have tough conversations and listen to anti-immigrant sentiment while grappling with the reality of the historical disinvestment of Black Chicago.”
During Trump’s first term, Chicago drew attention as one of the nation's largest so-called “sanctuary cities” that refused to assist in the administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. In practice, that meant the local government didn’t cooperate with immigration authorities about the status of suspects unless they were known gang members or violent felons.
Trump says he’ll be even tougher if he wins in November, vowing to seal the border and carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Biden initially focused on root causes, and tasked Harris to work with Central American countries on reducing the flow. Recently — under attack by the GOP and pressure from voters — the administration has taken a tougher line. In June, Biden signed an executive order aimed at limiting asylum claims at the US-Mexico border.
In Chicago, Beatriz Ponce de León — deputy mayor for migrant rights — acknowledges that some groups “bring to our attention that they feel perhaps forgotten or left behind” as the city tackles the crisis.
But she said that the city has mostly been able to integrate new migrants “with the full picture in mind,” and hasn’t diverted funds from programs that target other communities. “It’s not either-or, it’s both-and,” Ponce de León said.
When the national unemployment rate of African Americans dropped to historic lows last year, it continued to hover above 10% in the city — although it has improved in recent months.
More than 40% of Black voters believe employers should prioritize hiring Americans when jobs are scarce, compared to only 14% who say that shouldn't be the case, a recent Ipsos poll found.
“Black voters are frustrated that Democrats continue to prioritize the interests of illegal immigrants over our own Black Americans who were born in this country,” said Janiyah Thomas, a Trump campaign spokesperson.
Economists generally have found that foreign-born workers don’t take jobs away from Americans, and help boost growth by spending and paying taxes. And many of the recently arrived migrants are legally authorized to work as the government speeds up the processing of work authorizations for asylum seekers.
Research by Kyle Moore, an economist with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, shows that Illinois has one of the highest Black unemployment levels in the nation. He says those issues, however, are linked to longstanding problems, not a consequence of recent migration.
“It’s not like there’s something new that’s happening that’s taking away jobs from Black folks,” Moore said.
--With assistance from Miranda Davis, Andre Tartar and Isis Almeida.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
