1st Ward Report

MEDIA ADVISORY

Emergency Effort to Counter Land and Lakes Initiative

SPRINGFIELD – May 29, 2012 - Working together for “Latino environmental justice,” members of the Chicago and State Latino Caucuses will meet in Springfield on Tuesday in an effort to stop a new landfill proposed for Chicago’s southeast side. A press conference will be held at 11:15am on the first floor of the Capital Building to talk about the landfill’s impact on the Latino community and the environmental.

On Tuesday the Environmental Health Committee State House will consider legislation, HB388, a bill that will prohibit any new landfills or landfill expansions in Cook County. The bill is sponsored by state Rep. Marcus Evans Jr., D-Chicago, and among its co-sponsors is state Rep. Connie Howard, D-Chicago will be heard on Tuesday by the Environmental Health Committee.

The emergency legislative action sprung up this weekend in response to a court decision released Friday in favor of the landfill. Unless the legislature acts, the landfill located at 138th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue can reopen. Latino officials from Chicago are concerned that the landfill will harm Latinos on Chicago’s southeast side by negatively impacting the urban area’s property value, economic development and the community’s ability to promote itself. In addition, the daily exposure of the smell of rotting waste has severe impacts to the respiratory health.

For decades, residents, the local community, and environmental organizations from the Lake Calumet Region have been fighting to maintain a landfill moratorium on the southeast side. This bill, HB3881, secures a landfill moratorium for Cook County and protects the state’s investments in the region.

Allowing landfills to operate in Cook County puts more than $25 million of recent taxpayer state investments at risk. The landfill moratorium guaranteed the community the ability to plan, investments and address quality of life issues. In addition, over 50 community and environmental groups are working with key legislators to help pass a ban on landfills in Chicago and Cook County.

WHO:

Rep. Marcus C. Evans, Jr.

Senator Don Harmon

Ald. John Pope, Chicago 10th Ward

Ald. Joe Moreno, Chicago 1st Ward

Ald. Rey Colon, Chicago 35th Ward

Ald. Rick Munoz, Chicago 22nd Ward

Ald. George Cardenas, Chicago 12th Ward

Peggy Salazar, Executive Director, Southeast Environmental Task Force

Juan Rangel, United Neighborhood Organization (UNO)

Riley Rodgers and Deborah Green, Trustees, Village of Dolton

Lawrence Jackson, Trustee, Village of Riverdale

WHAT: Support HB3881 to stop establishment or expansion of landfills in Cook County.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 29th at 11:15 a.m. CT

WHERE: Illinois Capital Building, First Floor

401 South 2nd Street

Springfield, IL

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Today, I introduced a Resolution that called for a joint Committee on Finance and Committee on Human Relations hearing to determine what further steps can be taken to urge Arizona legislators to repeal SB 1070. The goal of the hearings is to determine what the City of Chicago can do to urge Arizona legislators to repeal the bill.

Arizona SB 1070 creates a troubling legal precedent, which places a burden on the Arizona police to discriminate on the basis of ethnicity. Arizona SB 1070 is a challenge to the civil liberties of all residents of, and visitors to, Arizona.

Arizona SB 1070 makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally and requires police officers to question those whom they suspect to be illegal immigrants. I am the grandson of Mexican Immigrants and I believe America’s diversity has been and will continue to be our greatest strength.

I believe that Arizona SB 1070 is an affront to long-held legal precedents and principles and its passage is very troubling. I disagree with those who do not think it concerns them. This is not a Latino or ethnic issue; it’s a legal and human rights issue. Arizona SB 1070 is bad legislation, which should concern all people who value civil liberties; plain and simple.

The Resolution was co-sponsored by all members of the Latino Caucus and signed by thrity Alderman overall.

Here is the text of the Resolution:

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The State of Arizona enacted SB 1070, which was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer on the 23rd day of April, 2010; and

WHEREAS, Arizona SB 1070 makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally; and 

WHEREAS, Arizona SB 1070 requires police officers to question those they suspect are illegal immigrants; and 

WHEREAS, Arizona SB 1070 will unfairly target members of the Latino community in Arizona, which will cause undue anxiety to millions of people; and  
 
WHEREAS, Arizona SB 1070 removes the American legal virtue that assumes innocence, placing a burden on Arizona police officers to discriminate on the basis of ethnicity; and

WHEREAS, The United States of America was founded and has thrived on legal principals contradictory to Arizona SB 1070; and

WHEREAS, The United States of America is a nation comprised of immigrants, with a history of eventually welcoming immigrants as assets to the country; and

WHEREAS, Arizona SB 1070 is a challenge to the cherished civil liberties of all citizens residing in and traveling to the state of Arizona; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and Members of the Chicago City Council, assembled here this12th day of May, 2010, do hereby denounce the actions of the Arizona Legislature in passing Arizona SB 1070; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and Members of the Chicago City Council, assembled here this this12th day of May, 2010, do hereby request that the City Council’s Committee on Finance and Committee on Human Relations conduct one or more joint hearings to examine the steps needed for the city government to investigate what further actions can be taken to urge Arizona legislators to repeal this discriminatory, un-American legislation.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, the President and Minority Leader of the Arizona Senate and the Speaker and Minority Leader of the Arizona House of Representatives.