Migrant crisis caused by decades of inaction on immigration in Washington
Children are among hundreds of migrants being sheltered at O’Hare International Airport.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The current immigration mess shouldn’t be placed on the shoulders of Texans or Chicagoans or New Yorkers. All this current transporting of people makes for good nightly news theater, but spreading the pain between states isn’t addressing the problem. This mess has been caused by the inaction of the politicians in Washington for decades.
The only photo op that will work is to round up all of the immigrants we have collected from the various states and send them to Washington D.C. Hopefully, the sight of tent cities near the steps of the U.S. Capitol would get the attention of the networks and the politicians.
It won’t be as easy to ignore the issue when it’s in your backyard. At a minimum, it should limit the pontificating of politicians for the TV cameras on the Capitol steps each day. Not a good photo op to be seen with the results of their inaction in the background.
Steve Fortuna, Naperville
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Pass City Council resolution in support of Palestinians
The City Council passed a resolution Friday condemning Hamas’s violence (“ ‘Justice begins by condemning these horrific attacks’ ” — Oct. 13). It should also pass a resolution condemning Israel’s violence against Palestinians.
There are 2 million people in Gaza, half of them children. The Palestinians of Gaza are experiencing bombings, the imminent threat of an Israeli invasion, and Israel shutting off water, food and fuel. Do those who voted for the resolution not value their lives? Do they not see them as human beings?
When I was 19, I went to work on a kibbutz in northern Israel. Like so many in this country, I had learned about the Holocaust and had been taught that the Israelis had turned a barren, empty land (Palestine) into a blooming, prosperous territory for Jews who survived the Holocaust.
I learned something very different when I was there. The land was not empty! Palestinians lived there and had for centuries. All the Israelis I spoke with talked about the “Arabs” (I never heard them say Palestinians) as if they were dangerous, worthless and undeserving. Their attitudes conjured up images of the way racists in this country talked (and talk) about Black people.
And now the Chicago City Council has passed a resolution backing Israel as it is carrying out genocidal attacks on Palestinian people. In the name of humanity and human rights, we must not let this happen.
Margaret Power, Logan Square
50 years of apprenticeships
This month, the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Apprentice Graduation Dinner. Reaching journeyman status is such an important milestone in the lives of the hard-working men and women in the building trades, and I want to congratulate all our graduates past and present for their achievements.
It takes 6,000 hours of combined classroom and on-the-job instruction to complete the apprenticeship program for the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council, which is offered at no cost to our apprentices.
When a carpenter apprentice becomes a journeyman, they are at the top level of the pay scale in their field — the average salary for graduates of certified apprentice programs is $77,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor — and free of the crippling student loan debt that can impede someone from securing a better future for themselves and their family. This is why we believe graduating from a union apprenticeship is one of the few paths remaining for blue-collar workers to join the middle class.
In 50 years, our apprenticeship program that covers a 10-county region in northeastern Illinois has produced 16,379 graduates, a staggering number we are incredibly proud of.
Our graduates have gone on to become superintendents, business owners and civic leaders. They have constructed homes, businesses, schools and hospitals — the very foundations of our communities.
But it’s not just the physical structures they’ve erected; it’s the economic impact they have on the neighborhoods in which they live and work. A recent study by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute found that union construction workers annually contribute $5,600 in federal income taxes, $4,200 in payroll taxes and $1,700 in state income taxes.
It’s a tremendous source of pride for our apprentices to make it through our rigorous training program. They are truly elite and their dedication is a testament to the values we instill in our apprentices from day one.
The Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council is forever grateful to everyone who has helped position our apprentice graduates for success over these past 50 years, most notably the apprentice and training program leaders and instructors, our signatory contractors, and our local unions. They have all been instrumental in ensuring our apprentices have access to the best apprenticeship training in the United States.
Gary Perinar, executive secretary-treasurer, Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council
Allow homeowners to rent basements to migrants
I would suggest asking homeowners to rent out their extra space to migrants, particularly if there is a separate entrance. Homeowners with or without the following problems: Flooded basements, mold due to floods, storm damage and fire damage. Money used to buy tents could be used to repair homeowners’ properties, which have heat. It would solve homeowners’ problems while helping migrants.
Eloise Turney, Washington Heights