Migrants from Latin American countries — primarily Venezuela — may be getting off a bus from Texas in Chicago, but they are learning about Lake County and finding their way farther north.
Dulce Ortiz, the executive director of Mano a Mano Family Resource Center in Round Lake Park and a Waukegan Township trustee, said the people are not being sent to shelters in Lake County, but otherwise learn about opportunities locally.
“They hear about us from a family member or a friend, and they come here,” Ortiz said. “We help them with health care, like Medicaid and SNAP,” Ortiz said referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
With the number of migrants coming to Lake County growing exponentially in the past few months, organizations like Mano a Mano and HACES in Waukegan needed help assisting them. A partnership with Lake County government will soon infuse cash.
Lake County is set to disburse just over $1 million in grant funds to Mano a Mano, HACES and the North Shore Legal Aid Clinic, to help those organizations’ efforts assisting migrants as they arrive in places like Waukegan, Round Lake and elsewhere around the county.
“We were able to hire more people to help the migrants; to help them navigate to get what they need like school, clothing and housing,” Maria Elana Jonas, HACES’ executive director, said. “It’s important the county is helping.”
Brenda O’Connell, the county’s community development administrator, said in an email HACES, Mano a Mano and the North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic in Highland Park helped nearly 2,000 asylum-seekers over the past year.
During October, Ortiz said Mano a Mano helped 34 people new to the area, and in October 2022 there were none. Jonas said HACES assisted approximately 25 individuals last month. It was four or five last year.
Lake County Board Vice Chair Mary Ross Cunningham knows something about being a migrant. She said people helped her when she “migrated from Alabama” to Waukegan in 1956.
“We should help them, like people helped me when I migrated here,” Cunningham said. “These are human beings, they’re families, coming here looking for a better life. They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.”
As Mano a Mano and HACES were being overwhelmed, Ortiz and Jonas said they needed to find resources for their organizations. Ortiz said they heard about grant money available through the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.
“Only governments could apply,” Ortiz said. “We were doing the work, and needed the help. We went to the county, and they applied. We helped them develop the grant application.”
O’Connell said in the email the grant money will go directly to Mano a Mano ($670,000), HACES ($272,727) and the North Shore Legal Aid Clinic ($95,454). The county’s role is ministerial.
“Lake County’s application was based on reporting from the three partner organizations,” O’Connell said in the email. “Lake County will not receive any funding from this application but rather will manage and report on the funding.”
Since Texas officials started putting migrants on buses for Chicago, New York and other northern cities, Jonas said HACES has assisted nearly 1,000. Irma Barrientos, Mano a Mano’s program manager for Healthy Families and Successful Children, said her organization has helped over 400 in the same time frame.
“To my knowledge, there have been no buses here yet,” Jonas said.
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Ortiz said on rare occasions migrants get on a train in Chicago and disembark in Waukegan. Some find their way to Mano a Mano.
“A family got off the Metra and walked to City Hall,” Ortiz said. “We helped them with basic resources.”
Other municipalities receiving grant money to help migrants are Chicago with $30.25 million, Joliet Township with $8.6 million, Elgin with $1.27 million, Urbana with $250,000 and Oak Park with $150,000, according to a news release from the caucus.