The number of people seeking sanctuary in the Chicago area is growing significantly, according to a local agency that helps refugees resettle in the city.
"Right now, we are experiencing a really crazy surge in arrivals," Lea Tienou told an audience of college students as well as immigrant and refugee service providers and advocates.
Tienou is associate director of refugee family adjustment and employment services at the Heartland Alliance. She spoke Monday afternoon at DePaul University's Loop campus as part of a panel discussion about the global refugee crisis.
The Heartland Alliance typically sees about 20 refugees per month, Tienou explained. Just in the last month, however, 100 refugees came to the agency, and 90 more are expected to seek assistance from the Heartland Alliance in September.
"It's been a really busy time, and this is throughout the country that we're seeing a really large influx of arrivals," she said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI,1) expressed regret this week for his past comments against poor Americans, saying in a major speech Wednesday that he was wrong for calling people "makers and takers."
"There was a time that I would talk about a difference between 'makers' and 'takers' in our country, referring to people who accepted government benefits. But as I spent more time listening, really learning the root causes of poverty, I realized something. I realized that I was wrong," Ryan said during his speech about the state of American politics. "'Takers' wasn't how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap, trying to take care of her family. Most people don't want to be dependent. And to label a whole group of Americans that way was wrong. I shouldn't castigate a large group of Americans just to make a point."
In a question and answer session after his speech, delivered before a group of House interns, Ryan added, "I was callous and I oversimplified and I castigated people with a broad brush. That's wrong. And there's a lot of that happening in America today. I myself have made that mistake."
Despite Ryan's noteworthy change in rhetoric, and his push this year to make combating poverty a top GOP priority, critics say his policies speak for themselves.
Progress Illinois recaps Wednesday's Chicago City Council meeting, during which aldermen reaffirmed Chicago's status as a "sanctuary city" and approved new drone regulations and a Privatization Transparency and Accountability Ordinance.
Legislation seeking to put a temporary hold on efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in the United States could go up for a vote in the U.S. House this week.
Just before President Barack Obama delivered his televised address to the nation Tuesday night about the situation in Syria, about 50 Chicago anti-war protesters gathered downtown, urging the president not to move forward with U.S. military action against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons. Progress Illinois was there for the protest.
The number of people seeking sanctuary in the Chicago area is growing significantly, according to a local agency that helps refugees resettle in the city.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI,1) expressed regret this week for his past comments against poor Americans, saying 
