Editor’s note: The name of an illegal immigrant was changed in this story to protect his identity.

As cities in Illinois still recover from the loss of tax revenue caused by the recession, a group of Illinois mayors coordinated with each other to sign a letter to members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation asking them to support immigration reform. It was sent to the delegation on Oct. 23.

The mayors, including Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing and Champaign Mayor Don Gerard, said that granting citizenship for 11 million immigrants would add $1.5 trillion to our economy over the next ten years. 

“We cannot hope to achieve the growth necessary to repair the damage done by the recession without bringing eleven million people out of the shadows and fully integrated into our economy,” the letter said.

According to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, one of every eight Americans is an immigrant, and nearly one of every seven Illinois residents is an immigrant.

“Given the recent political posturing and hackery regarding shutting down the government, I wanted to add my name to those who believe it is time to stop being politicians and start being public servants,” Gerard said.

Prussing said she signed the letter because she viewed it as a human rights issue.

Ricardo Diaz, committee member of the Champaign-Urbana Immigration Forum, a local advocacy group, said the immigration reform will allow immigrants to be acknowledged correctly. 

“The reform will make it so that a lot more people are on the books … for safety reasons it’s good for them to be identified,” Diaz said. “Immigrants are already making a contribution to the county. They’re living here and working here.”

Diaz has made it his priority to continue to fight for their rights.

“Immigrants should have a chance to be apart of the society and recognized as regular people and have their contribution be acknowledged,” Diaz said. “They’re making contributions and are not being acknowledged; they’re being acknowledged as scapegoats.”

Jose, an illegal immigrant, said he came to America to make a living that he couldn’t have achieved in his home country.

“It’s a whole different way of life because in Mexico you can work a week and you can win $30,” he said. “$1 is like 11 pesos if you work here one week (for) forty hours you get $300. It’s almost 3,000 pesos, 3,000 pesos!”

Prussing said business owners are having problems finding employees, and that immigration reform could help in this regard.

“We do have a shortage of skilled workers for well-paid manufacturing jobs such as at Kraft in Champaign.” Prussing said. “However, I don’t think this is a method to help the local economy as much as a basic issue of treating people fairly.”

Graduate student Jie Ding, who is originally from China, agreed.

“We are equal right?” Ding said. “No matter what kind of background you are from, what kind of race you are, people should be equal and they should be acknowledged by their hard work instead of their nationality and race.”

Gerard said immigration reform is about creating opportunities and unlocking America’s future.

“No matter from where a talented individual may come, we should be able to afford them the opportunity to keep their talents here if they so wish,” Gerard said. “Champaign has one of the most dynamic tech and engineering talent pools learning and honing its skills and we have the companies who would love to keep them right here.”

Nyajai can be reached at [email protected].