Cook County Pro-Immigrant Ordinance Fails

Jonathan Lipman writes (here) that the Cook County Board rejected Tuesday an attempt to make the county an immigrant-friendly government by forbidding its employees from investigating or asking about anyone’s immigration status. Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado, who has championed the resolution for more than a year, looked visibly upset after the resolution failed on a tie vote with three abstentions. “I’m not going to give up,” Maldonado (D-Chicago) said. “I’m going to bring it back. … When we fought for civil rights legislation, it did not happen overnight.” The bill, similar to one that passed Chicago City Council last year, would have forbidden county sheriff’s police and other officials from inquiring about anyone’s immigration status unless it was connected to an investigation into other criminal wrongdoing. County services could not be withheld based on immigration status. The most surprising aspect of the vote — along with four of the board’s five Republicans, the board’s five black Democrats and Commissioner John Daley voted to oppose or abstain on the bill. “There is a big disconnect between the African-American community and the … Latino community when it comes to this issue,” Maldonado said. “There is a distorted perception out there … that immigrants … agree to work for lower wages than the African-American community would be willing to do,” Maldonado said. “It’s absolutely untrue. We take the jobs that nobody else wants.”

KJ