Thread: Towns melting pot boils anxiety

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Towns' melting pots boil anxiety
Influx of Hispanic immigrants causes tension for some
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By Ray Quintanilla
Tribune staff reporter

May 29, 2007

Although home to only about 70 Latinos, Hampshire recently took the largely symbolic step of making English its official language.

In nearby Carpentersville, some politicians want to crack down on those who hire illegal immigrants or rent to them.

At the same time, concerns have been raised throughout the Chicago area -- from Elgin and Waukegan to Cicero and Berwyn -- about crowded classes and too many families sharing the same house, circumstances often linked to a burgeoning Hispanic population.

These are among the often divisive issues simmering in communities that in recent years have replaced Chicago as the point of entry for thousands of immigrants arriving from Mexico and Latin America. Scholars, civil rights advocates and legal experts say the backlash to the influx and inevitable tensions are part of the growing pains as waves of new arrivals settle in the suburbs.

"The country is in a great deal of turmoil right now," said Susan Gzesh, director of the Human Rights Project at the University of Chicago. "People in the suburbs are feeling uncomfortable and that breeds insecurity. There is a tendency to look for scapegoats during times like this."

The challenge, say Gzesh and others, is whether community leaders, law enforcement agencies and politicians can promote and maintain harmony between longtime residents and their new neighbors whose primary language is Spanish.

Putting a hard number on the size of the Chicago area's Latino population is difficult, considering some are here illegally. But one study suggests the suburbs are the new ground zero for Latino immigrants.

University of Notre Dame research, analyzing data from 2000 to 2004, found that the number of Latinos across the suburbs has risen by a third to about 862,000. In Chicago, the Latino population over the same period shrunk by 1 percent to about 746,000.

Ricardo Meza, Midwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Chicago, said part of the growing tension across the suburbs can be attributed to people who do not welcome or even accept change.

"The reaction becomes people taking matters into their own hands and that is a common response to demographic change taking place," he said.

One such example, Meza said, unfolded last year in Mt. Prospect when River Trails Middle School, which has absorbed an influx of Latinos, proposed suspending children for speaking Spanish.

Supt. Ed Tivador of River Trails District 26 eventually canned the idea, which was part of an anti-bullying effort. He called it "misguided."

Punishing a child for speaking Spanish in the United States is nothing new, said Al Garza, national executive director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group advocating stronger enforcement along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Garza, who lives in Huachuca City, Ariz., said he was paddled by his 3rd-grade teacher in rural Texas for speaking Spanish in class. So were other children, he said.

Although he remains conflicted by the event, Garza said the best way to prevent such a violent response to the language is to ensure only those who are in the United States legally are allowed to remain.

"People see the illegal immigrants on public assistance and getting free medical care," Garza said. "Enforcing the border is the best way to address this issue."

Others say communities that lash out at their new residents are postponing the inevitable and may be breaking the law.

In some cases, the response to the influx of Latinos across the suburbs has ended up in the courts.

That's what happened in Addison in the early 1990s when the near west suburb began pushing for demolition of dozens of large apartment buildings in two predominantly Latino neighborhoods.

After years of litigation, the dispute was resolved by a federal court order that preserved the neighborhoods, required relocation assistance for displaced families and provided other accommodations.

"Addison was using a strong-arm approach against its growing Latino population," said Matthew Piers, an attorney who litigated the case against the village.

"Towns can't enforce immigration laws," he said.

Nowhere have local tensions about a growing population of Latinos been more visible than in northwest suburban Carpentersville, a community of 37,000 residents that is 40 percent Latino. A proposed ordinance that calls for suspending the licenses of businesses employing illegal immigrants, is modeled after a similar ordinance in Hazelton, Pa., which currently is tied up in the courts.

Some trustees also have pushed for an ordinance that would make English the official language of Carpentersville -- a proposal that would be more restrictive than the resolution adopted in Hampshire.

But trustees delayed a vote this month after the proposal was attacked by residents and questioned by police and fire officials concerned about public safety.

The recent discussions disturb Maria Elena, 25, a factory worker in Carpentersville who said she wants her two small children to be fluent in Spanish and English. She bypassed the Latino neighborhoods in Chicago in favor of Carpentersville because she wanted to raise her children in a largely English speaking community.

She never imagined the mood in Carpentersville would turn so hostile, she said.

"You walk down the street and someone shouts names at you from a passing car," said Elena, a native of Central Mexico. "It happens. I try to block it out, but it hurts."

But she wouldn't trade her life in Carpentersville for one in Mexico. In the northwest suburbs, she said, she's got money in the bank. The housing is good and her children's future seems bright.

"I live here. I'm a part of the community," she said. "I just want to be like everyone else."

rquintanilla@tribune.com
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

But she wouldn't trade her life in Carpentersville for one in Mexico. In the northwest suburbs, she said, she's got money in the bank. The housing is good and her children's future seems bright.

"I live here. I'm a part of the community," she said. "I just want to be like everyone else."

IF you arrived in our United States of America LEGALLY, you help your children to assimilate & make the effort to speak English........YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME in our land of opportunity.

However, if you broke the law, came to our shores ILLEGALLY, you are no more welcomed here than a swarm of nasty bees.

NATIONALITY doesn't enter the picture

"Addison was using a strong-arm approach against its growing Latino population," said Matthew Piers, an attorney who litigated the case against the village.

"Towns can't enforce immigration laws," he said.

I'd say the jury is still out on that opinion.... As pressure increases from residents there is going to be a greater and greater number of communities moving in exactly that direction. It may be the courts who ultimately decide the issue, but the people are speaking all over this country and the local politicians are not so well insulated from reality as the federals.

Maybe the writer of this article should take a little scenic trip to all of the hispanic Chicago and suburban neighborhoods and he might begin to understand why they are not welcomed. I am so tired of seeing the Mexican flags, billboards in Spanish, which are posted on the city buses and trains, and the yip yapping of Spanish on the trains. I am so tired of seeing them in my shopping malls and grocery stores. I am tired of seeing hispanic scum men staring at my 17 year old daughter.
Then read articles on how the state, county and city have no money and how they have to raise the state income tax and cook county property taxes. Let's sock it to the middle class. I wish the state politicians, cook county board, and city of Chicago alderman would stand up and say enough! We can no longer support the illegals in the state. Schools are overcrowded-classrooms in mobile trailers. There are housing shortages, gang members walking the streets. It truly is unbelievable how the city neighborhoods have been destroyed. The city Mayor Daley sees is the Loop, and the North Side neighborhoods. Home of the elites!

As far as Dick Durbin goes, he is the biggest hispander of all. Don't be fooled by his comments. He voted against the Vitter amendment, voted for last year's immigration bill, voted against the fence and introduced the "Dream Act" for instate tuition. As far as English only his comment was if the signs are only in English, the Spanish speaking population might all drown because they could not read the "No Swimming Allowed".

Ricardo Meza, Midwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Chicago, said part of the growing tension across the suburbs can be attributed to people who do not welcome or even accept change.

I know where I am this area has gone through drastic change. Quiet little "village" that didn't even have a dot on the map to become this massive continuation of Chicago. A "white" farm area, to a huge diverse area with just about every nation represented here. All within the last 17 years. Every day is an adventure just to go to the grocery store because of all the traffic congestion. I can say for myself there's been enough "changes" to adjust to where changing the darn language is just a tad too much to expect, all because 1 group won't speak it.

I would like to know why....if the OFFICIAL language of the state IS ENGLISH.....why now do towns also have to declare it "official"?

Chicagoscrewed wrote:

As far as English only his comment was if the signs are only in English, the Spanish speaking population might all drown because they could not read the "No Swimming Allowed".

Well I guess he does not care about the Russian, the Pole, the Italian, ect.. that does not know English yet.

I guess he only cares about Spanish speakers!

Enough accomodating illegal foreigners. Come legally and learn English!