Posts Tagged ‘Chicago’

Update on Chicago’s Official Support for TPS

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

Back in October, we reported that the Chicago City Council appeared to support Guatemala’s TPS request.  At the time, the Council had taken a vote on a supportive resolution, but the results of that resolution were not available.

Well, the results are now online (on page 87 of the PDF), and were recently referenced by the Guatemalan foreign ministry. As it turns out, the vote was unanimous, with all 47 voting members supporting Guatemala’s request for assistance!

Of course, the vote isn’t binding in any way, but it is important to remember the significance of Chicago.  President Obama considers the Windy City his home, and he got his political start there. His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is one of the favored candidates to replace Mayor Daly, and there are many political connections between the City and the President. So, while the Chicago City Council certainly can’t tell Mr. Obama what to do, its support is a good sign indeed.

City of Chicago Committee on Human Relations Supports Guatemalan TPS

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

On October 1, the Chicago City Council’s Committee on Human Relations voted in support of the Guatemalan TPS Request. Specifcially, the Committee voted in support of a resolution presented by Alderman Roberto Maldonado, of the City’s 26th Ward.  The resolution calls upon President Obama to grant the TPS request on humanitarian grounds, and this vote is yet another example of the growing political support on all levels of the US political world.  After passing through the Committee, the resolution was passed to the whole Council, which voted on the matter on October 6.  The results of that voted have not been posted on the City Council’s site yet, but we will update this post as soon as we hear something. If any of our readers were present at the Oct 6 Chicago City Council meeting and can tell us how the vote went, please drop us a line at Guatemala@Kolasinski-Law.com

While some people may question the significance of a City Council resolution, we’re not dealing with just any city here.  In addition to being one of America’s largest cities, Chicago is the adopted home of President Obama and is the place where he started his political career.  Chicago plays such an important role in the current administration that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel just resigned his position so that he can run for Mayor of Chicago. So, there’s a very good chance that this vote will have some impact on President Obama’s decision.  Of course, it is still quite unlikely that we will have a final verdict before the upcoming election.