In recent editorials, both Mike Bailey and Chris Bailey have slammed the city for its refusal to deal with the immigration issue.

When I covered city hall in the 1980s, the Elgin City Council was pressured into passing a resolution declaring Elgin a nuclear-free zone.

A small knot of people in a woozy, dreamlike state believed this meaningless resolution would stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

No nuclear weapon silos pulsed under local cornfields or glowed faintly green in hidden corners of the city. But with an almost menacing zealotry, the aging flower children of the 1960s cheered wildly when a somewhat bewildered council passed the resolution without much comment. “What’s the harm?” one of them told me later.

Up until this week, that was the most impotent gesture ever undertaken by a public body in my tenure as a journalist. But last week, the Elgin City Council surpassed that with the palace eunuch of resolutions, calling on the federal government to try to solve the problem of illegal immigration. (source: Courier 12/3/06)

For her part, Chris Bailey describes the city’s inaction as, “meek local acquiescence in the face of epic federal failure.” (source: Herald 12/10/06)

The city insists it can’t do anything. Mike Bailey says it can:

Council members could have asked the legal department to explore the legality of requiring employers, especially temp agencies, and landlords to verify citizenship; banning multiple names on home titles; insisting contractors who perform city work or who receive city incentives certify under penalty that all their workers are legal U.S. citizens; aggressive but lawful inspections of the many overcrowded dwellings; and insisting, albeit with little effect, that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) take custody of illegal aliens detained locally.

In my view, the city can start by putting together a commission, a task force–whatever you want to call it–that will publish within a stated timeframe a complete study of the impact of illegal immigration on Elgin. Without clear numbers detailing the impact on the local economy (retail, industrial, etc.), real estate market, schools, medical services, quality of life as reflected in criminal and other statistics, and so on, it’s difficult to determine or suggest a proper course of action. Right now, it’s all very vague.

The study should also analyze what the impact will be if the illegal immigrants leave. There will be both immediate and long-term impacts, which must be studied. For example, one immediate impact would be that ethnic grocery stores and other stores that cater to this market will suffer a loss of business–some may go under, another immediate impact is that the real estate rental market will take a dive since immediate demand will dry up. One example of a long-term impact might be that rental housing gets converted to single family homes, crowding in the historic neighborhoods is reduced and property values rise.

It’s all very complex and it’s hard to tell what the final impact of any legislation would be. I imagine many analysts will have their eyes attached to Hazleton, Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future to see what the economic impact of their ordinance will be. Hazleton, if you don’t already know, passed some legislation targeting illegal aliens, and it had the desired effect of convincing the illegal aliens to go elsewhere. There was a 60 Minute show on this (look for it on YouTube).

In any case, expect no leadership from Ed Schock on this. Because he once complained to the Chicago Tribune that Elgin needs more white people, he’s vulnerable to claims of racism. And the fact that he’s now being sued by the proprietors of Anthony’s, who are alleging racism in the case where he shut down their restaurant, doesn’t help. As long as Ed Schock is mayor of Elgin, you can expect a do-nothing city council when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration.

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