Border children controversy comes to Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- In Washington the Senate voted Wednesday to advance a three and a half billion dollar emergency spending bill to help deal with the flood of border children in the county. Many Republicans oppose the measure.

In Chicago, there is growing controversy over calls for Chicago to aid the border children.

The cynical view is that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing this to try and curry favor with the city's Latino population, which is growing faster than any other group. But this cause rings in a very personal way for Emanuel.

"We are not only a city of big shoulders, we are a city of big hearts," the mayor said.

The mayor is doubling down on his belief that Chicago institutions, public and private, should help shelter at least 1,000 unaccompanied, undocumented child immigrants.

"Because the test and measure of this city is how we treat our children," Emanuel said.

It's estimated that since last year, as many 60,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the southwestern border illegally to flee poverty and violence in their home countries. The president has asked Congress for as much as $4 billion to address the crisis.

"If he wants to help anyone, let him help those black kids who are trying to run from gangs on the South and West Sides," said talk radio host Charles Butler.

"I think we definitely need to focus on the children that exist in the city.," said 28th Ward Alderman Jason Ervin. "We've got some challenges of our own before we take on additional responsibilities."

Many families worry the crisis could harden attitudes opposed to immigration reform and further complicate the status of their family members.

"This is the human consequence of not having laws that are working for our families," said Veronica Castro, Illinois Coalition for Refugee Rights.

"They need to go back home to their home countries. That's what they need to do," Butler said.

But the mayor remembers his own grandfather who came to this country in the mid-20th century as an unaccompanied child immigrant escaping religious persecution in Eastern Europe.

"To leave the violence, 13 years old by himself, not a word of English. To come to a place called Chicago," the Emanuel said.

At the news conference the mayor's emotion was evident as he talked about his grandfather who escaped anti-Semitic riots and the massacres of Jews in Moldova.

Despite the controversy surrounding the border he appears "locked in" on helping them as much as he can.