One Chicago suburb after the other is awash in Hate Has No Home Here signs. Naperville is no different. If one takes a stroll through downtown Naperville, you will see million dollar house after million dollar house proudly advertising their family’s progressive ideals with signs and rainbow flags. Remember Vote Blue No Matter Who?
Diversity, equity, and inclusion has become a battle cry. The importance of diversity has been touted with religious zeal in well-to-do communities such as Naperville. Making sure everyone, from all walks of life, feels included has become the primary policy objective for suburbs everywhere. In Naperville, DEI has been brought up by councilmen, staff, and speakers at council meetings with regularity for years now.
So now given the recent influx of migrants in Naperville and surrounding cities, it would appear to be the perfect time for the progressives in these cities to showcase their commitment to DEI. Thousands of migrants, alone and new to our foreign land, have been left abandoned right here. They have been left to sit on cold Chicago sidewalks for days on end. They have been left to live on police department floors for weeks?
So what have all of our proud progressives voters and liberal officials in Naperville done during this crisis which has left thousands of poor minorities in such dire straits?
A great big nothing.
DEI proponents where art thou? Do you only support DEI when doing so does not risk inconveniencing you and your family?
Our largely very liberal school boards have not even broached the migrant subject, let alone offered help, to these migrants.
Not a single one of the owners of the many huge Naperville homes flying “Hate Has No Home Here” signs have offered even one of their many spare bedrooms to a single migrant family.
Where have our progressive city councilmen been on this subject? The answer is nowhere. Their focus has been squarely on figuring ways to ship the migrants out of town.
People show you who they are in times of crisis. Progressives, if you are not willing to stand up now for these poor minorities, for the sake of everyone, please stop singing the DEI song. Please find a new way to make yourselves feel “en vogue”. The DEI movement now appears as having been far more about politics, and making one feel popular and hip at the wine party, than it ever was about helping poor minorities.
So to the DEI movement, its put up or shut up time. Open your wallets and the doors to your great big homes. For it is going to be really hard to take your politics seriously if this how you show up when poor minorities need you most.
To start with DEI and migrants are two totally different issues. Anyone that seriously thinks they are in anyway related is only demonstrating their complex lack of understand of these two issues. Or does understand them but is not being sincere in their narrative on these issues.
DEI is about making sure the Diversity that exists in a community’s population is reflected through Equal and Inclusive representation in employment, education, heathcare, etc population within that community. DEI is a local issue that can be address by local policies through local government and local private institutions.
Immigrants (migrants) are a national issue that can only be addressed by a national (federal) government through federal government policies and legislation on Immigration. What some southern states, most notably Texas, are doing with transporting immigrants to “liberal/democrat/sanctuary” communities is not being done to address the migrant problems but to advance the political careers of these elected officials using taxpayer dollars. These actions do nothing to help these immigrants and do nothing to solve the problems with our nation’s immigration laws (which were broken when enacted in the 60s). Dumping busloads of immigrants at locations (like in front of elected officials residences, in front of city halls, on random street corners, etc) where there is no one to provide them with assistance, shelter, medical care, etc. does nothing to help these people. All this does is exploit these desperate immigrants to advance a personal political agenda.
As to housing immigrants in the homes of individual residents of a community, this again only putting them in a place were their needs are not being meet. These immigrants need more then food and shelter. They need advocates with the training, experience and contacts that can get them a permanent place to live, get their children in school and daycare, get the adults the documentation they need to work in the US and help finding employment. And this requires, first and for most some that speak the language of these immigrants.
The average citizen simply does not have these skills, knowledge, experience and contacts. Pushing the narrative of placing immigrants in the homes of community residents is again simply another form of exploiting the plight of these people for the sole purpose of pushing a specific political agenda. And this is all this narrative achieves. It is neither a solution or helpful in anyway.
There are in fact groups and organizations in both Naperville and DuPage county dedicated to providing useful assistants to immigrants that arrive in these communities. But dropping busloads of these immigrants at the train station without providing them with either the information or means to contact these groups, is again purely exploitive. And doing this without providing government official of advanced notice insures these communities can not used the plans they have in place to assist these immigrants. Again these actions only make a bad situation worse, which is exactly the intent of these involved in these exploitive actions as well as the intent of those that support or encourage this type of behavior.
Basically, exploiting the suffering of these immigrants for the solely purpose of pushing a political agenda has done nothing to provide any solutions for this issue and it never will. Political party members that are serious about solving this issue need to spend less time talking about it at public venues (and campaign trail) and more time talking about it in government offices and working with each other to fix our broken immigration laws through comprehensive immigration legislation. And not more of the patch work immigration fixes that have been used for the last almost 75 years which have fixed nothing.
Awesome response, Thank you
Well said James.
My “ immigrant” Great Grandparents left Germany in the early1800’s to work in America and have a better life, human rights & freedom for religion. They would be astounded how future generations who stole the land from indigenous residents, and forgot their roots as immigrants.
Wow. That was just a really fancy way for ‘well to do’ people to say- it’s not my problem…not in MY fancy house with that nonsense…
Pathetic.
Not sure Naperville really knows how much fun is poked at their fake entitled lives by other communities. Our children are a reflection of us and are real, live real lives and work hard…THOSE are real life lessons…they don’t ask mommy for the BMW. They drive cars they’ve earned and are the first to give anything to anyone. They laugh at your kids…and just like the parents-a whole different type of people. Yours are also a reflection.
We laugh at your lack of community, giving and this whole picture perfect bs life you try to flaunt. You use politics as excuses for yourselves.
We all know it’s misery behind that front door. Mom is a Karen with pills and detachment , dad is oblivious, and the kids are super snots.
Where there’s money flaunted, junk people tend to be. Those with less know the huge importance of giving. People here don’t just give, they sacrifice.
Your kids are still in our neighborhoods getting the ‘expensive drugs’ OR they’re selling moms ‘painkiller’s’ and antidepressants.
We are in Aurora. We don’t have it the best…but we see Napervilles teenagers here..A LOT. They flaunt the cars and the money when they’re here for something. It’s so obvious. We’re tired of you all making us look worse.
So yeah, don’t worry Naperville-nobody expects y’all to do anything or help the migrants. We got this. We as a community have personally helped hundreds and will continue to do so.
Send yours our way so they aren’t infecting your “Beautification” LOL!
Least our mayor and councilmen spend our tax money on our schools, community programs and fixing what’s broken. You guys could use a rehab. Maybe suggest that to your council.
Enjoy your ugly new blue sign folks! Money well spent!
You could’ve hired local contractors willing to volunteer (doubt ANY of you there would EVER work for free) and spend the 100k building an addition to a shelter or expanding a church to help these people not feel like the towns garbage. But hey…that new sign looks great on you…it says “We don’t care, we throw money away on literal rocks, look at us!!” LMAO
But thank you, because Aurora, Plainfield, Montgomery, Lisle, Shorewood and Yorkville are all getting a good laugh out of you guys! We weren’t surprised your town did nothing to help. There are forums and memes out of you guys hiding silver forks and mom crying on her knees over a spot of dirt on the fancy carpets..while their kids treat them like an infectious disease that can potentially ruin their TikTok video or Friday night. (Don’t worry, your kids are here likely buying coke if you wonder where they are..I mean, they aren’t here for ‘friends’..our demographic isn’t quite ‘their bag’..let’s be honest here. Dad would never approve that)
You make up a population of ‘those type’ of people we all don’t want to associate with. It’s just another thing that shows who you are as a community. Ugly. Like your sign portrays. It’s quite perfect actually.
Us real people-that work hard and have very little in comparisons-will be happy to open our schools, churches, homes, fridges and our car doors for anyone in need. Spending our non working hours helping them navigate and locate proper programs and resources so they too can eventually have their own lives back.
That’s what we as a community do. Oh…and you’ll notice that we do this WITHOUT flying flags or having any stupid ‘trendy’ signs in our windows.
We already know by actions who we are. Nobody here needs to put out any signs that say “Look at us, we support..um.. stuff!” -that you really don’t. Just be honest man. We laugh at your stupid signs too, fyi. Who needs to advertise it lol…it doesn’t make you better or liked, action does. So we don’t buy it. ‘’All for show’ is what we say.
Enjoy the Beautification as a town since it’s certainly not going to be in the people.
Oh..and please keep your rude, entitled, arrogant and drugged kids out of our town. This is East Aurora..and though I don’t ever promote violence, ever…it’s not a town to mess with and our younger crowd is getting pretty sick of them flashing around money and asking for drugs. Your kids have a certain ‘look’ if you will. So we know. That won’t end well I predict. Protect your children and talk to them. You may not know what they’re doing..but we do and it’s not good.
So ya know what? Maybe you guys taking in immigrants isn’t a good idea since you can’t track your own offspring. My own daughter was approached while out with her friends
when another girl and her friend asked if they know where she could get Aderall. Said she was from Naperville but it was ‘dry’. Someone told her to come here to ask. Blond girl, makeup, North Face jacket in an import. My daughter laughed in her face and told her to go back home. Stop giving us a bad wrap. Our kids don’t need that shit.
Dearest Naperville, just sit back and enjoy your new blue sign. There. All better . That’s what you’re good at. Stick to that and put more junk in your windows. We love it.
Problem solved.
The government does lots of shady things, we know this. But instead of just sitting on our asses waiting for them to never fix it, we take action. If they can’t do what’s right, it’s up to us.
Enjoy your Starbucks conversations and debates about it with your “friends”..we’ll be busy over here actually doing something.
I loved this article. Thanks for publishing it! Glad to know I’m not the only one NOT afraid to say something!
GO YOU NAPERVILLE!!
Naperville is consistently rated as one of the safest towns in America. Our police force is outstanding thanks to the city leadership and citizen support, you so causally mock. Naperville’s crime rates are a fraction of Aurora’s, which is why Naperville gets an A+ for it crime control compared to Aurora’s C rating in the nationally recognized Niche reports.
This is why drug related problems, while present in Naperville, are so low. We are a proactive community that pushes for solutions to our problems and gets involved in helping our police and our leadership. That is why the girl said Naperville is dry and went to Aurora. As to criminal activity crossing city borders, when I first moved into my home in Naperville I notice a car that did not belong. I called the police, they checked it out, and told me it had been stolen in Aurora and dumped by my house. I was also told at the time this is was not uncommon. Young people stealing a car in Aurora, going for a joy ride to downtown Naperville, dumping the car, hanging out downtown and then returning to Aurora.
Naperville has dozens of community groups that provide assistance to people from all walks of life, economic classes, working classes, ethnic backgrounds, etc. Volunteerism is something common among Naperville residents and supported by the community and city government. This include groups that help new migrants, not just those from Mexico, but from all over the World.
As to young people “hanging out”. I frequent the downtown Naperville area and see lots of young people that live in Aurora, hanging out around the River Walk. During one of my visits to downtown I randomly stopped and asked people where they were from. Over half were not from Naperville. Some of these people had actually traveled from as far away as Dundee, Waukegan, Palantine, Chicago as well as closer communities like Lisle, Woodridge, Westmont, Plainfield, Bolingbrook, etc and yes you guest it, Aurora. That speaks volumes about how safe and welcome they feel in our community.
As I pointed out, the major barrier for most Immigrants from Mexico, is language and culture. These are key needs for these people to find jobs, find a permanent place to live, see to it that their children’s needs are met, etc. It is not surprising that Aurora is better equipped then Naperville to provide these language and cultural needs since Aurora has a much larger Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latinx, etc population then Naperville (just as Naperville has a much larger Chinese & India population then Aurora). But as has also been reported in the News, there is a movement to have the city establish a list of Naperville residents interested in hosting and helping these immigrants directly rather then thru some community group.
I have lived in over a dozen city in my lifetime and I can say, without a doubt, that Naperville is the safest, most engaged and most welcoming city I have every lived in. And no I do not live in a multi-million dollar home, or have a 6 figure income. Yes, Naperville is an affluent community but it is also a diverse community ethnically, religiously and economically as well as by age.
Yes, Naperville has some areas it could improve in, but we are aware of these issues and are working, as a community, to address them and continue the process of making our community better place to live.
Your post sounds more like a anger rant then a rational statement of facts. I understand your frustration. The current immigrant situation is challenging enough without the actions of some that do nothing to remediation the situation but only make it worse. Busing people from a warm southern climate to a cold northern climate in the middle of winter and dumping them in areas were there is no support for them is not the actions of someone that has the best interest of these migrants at heart. These people are not only interested in making this a political issue but a divisive one as well. And your post, while understandable fostered by your anger and frustration over this situation, only enables this type of behavior and encourage these people to engage in more of the same.
Attacking each other does not help these migrants. It does not help solve this current problem. It does not encourage working together. It only advances the political agenda of politicians more interested in using this situation to advance their political careers at the expense of these immigrant, to exploit their misfortune and further victimism them so these politicians may further enrich themselves.
More hypocrisy and logical fallacy from Naperville republicans. They think if you support taking care of the migrants, then you need to put them in your house. That’s the dumbest argument. People support many causes and they elect politicians who support a given cause. They also use tax dollars for that cause.