Hundreds gathered to march and demonstrate in Brighton Park Friday afternoon to voice their opposition to a proposed winter camp for asylum-seekers in the Southwest Side neighborhood.
Plans call for the camp to be built on a vacant lot near West 38th Street and South California Avenue, where the city signed a $91,400-a-month lease for the first winterized tent city to house some of the thousands of migrants arriving in Chicago.
The crowd rallied near that site, then marched to the ward office of Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th), chanting “Julia, come out!” before returning to the vacant lot.
“We’re just here trying to get some justice and to speak our voice,” one speaker told the crowd. “It’s time to take back what belongs to us.”
Fliers distributed by organizers of the event — which were also taped to the ward office windows — suggested the city should instead put homeless residents into vacant properties, and also build the asylum-seeker camps in unincorporated areas, and include their own schools and other facilities.
Judy Mai, a 20-year Brighton Park resident, said she attended the protest to demand government officials meet with those who live near where the proposed camp site to get their input.
She said the Brighton Park community was “already crowded.”
“I need to send a message to the mayor and the aldermen,” Mai told the Sun-Times. “They want to put a camp in our community without speaking to us.”
To Ramirez, she would say: “You are my community representative you need to come out and see this and hear my words.”
Actually, Ramirez has come out before to talk to residents. But when she did so last month, protesters attacked Ramirez and an aide — forcing police to rescue both of them, whisking them away in a squad car.
Earlier this month, Ramirez said the city signed the lease without her knowledge and without asking the community, leaving her “frustrated and disappointed.”
