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Chicago Public School (CPS) Students organized a city-wide school walkout to assemble alongside undocumented people for immigrant rights and provisions that include a “clear path to citizenship.” On Wednesday, December 15, hundreds of high school students from Lane Tech, Amundsen, Theodore Roosevelt, and Northside College Prep left school and gathered at Horner Park to stage the rally. This organized walkout was an attempt to persuade the U.S. Senate to include a way for immigrants to gain citizenship after “working far too long for permanent solutions.”
The House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better (BBB) Act on Nov. 19, 2021, which includes $100 billion allocated toward immigration measures that provide diversity visas to those who were refused one or denied admission into the United States. Along with diversity visas, this bill also includes “up to 10 years of work authorization and protection from removal for undocumented [individuals] who have been living in the United States since before 2011.” However, it does not include a way for immigrants to have perpetual sovereignty. This is the reason why CPS students gathered together to rally for provisions to be made to this bill that will allow permanent citizenship for immigrants in this country.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate Judiciary Chairman, oversees the immigrant segment of the bill and has the potential to “take all steps to create the most favorable conditions for a pathway to citizenship in the Budget Reconciliation,” according to Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Now that the House has passed the bill, it is now up to the Senate to determine “whether the bill will become law in its current version…be revised or [be] defeated.”
During this crucial time, CPS students, along with HANA Center, FYSH (Fighting Youth Shouting Out for Humanity), Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago, and NAKASEC Action Fund, took it upon themselves to organize and carry out a rally to give their full effort towards making sure the immigrant citizenship provisions are passed in this bill.
Chicago was named “the most welcoming city in America for immigrants and refugees…[with] countless public officials and community members across our city who have come together to stand up and fight for the rights of our immigrant and refugee communities.” Knowing this, there is tremendous hope that the sentiments of CPS students, immigrants, and those standing in solidarity with them will have a lasting impact on Sen. Durbin to push for immigrants to have the opportunity to become U.S. citizens.
Written by Hyleia Kidd
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
Chicago Tribune: CPS students walk out of school for immigrant rights; by Stacey Wescott
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Chicago: Chicago Immigrant Youth to Walk Out to Demand Senator Durbin Deliver a Pathway to Citizenship in BBB
Mondaq: United States: Build Back Better Act, Passed In House, Includes Immigration Provisions; Senate’s Next; by Klasko
Godoy Law Office: Chicago Most Immigrant-Friendly City; by Mario A. Godoy
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of M01229’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of AMSF2011’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License