Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, along with activists and other elected officials, are calling out on President Joe Biden’s administration to expand work permits for long-term undocumented immigrants — and not just migrants who are new arrivals.

“People should not have to duck and hide to contribute to society,” Johnson said at an April 4 “Here to Work” roundtable meeting. “We need the president to extend the same economic opportunities to our long-term undocumented brothers and sisters to further benefit our communities to empower immigrants so they can build a better life here in the city of Chicago or wherever else they decide to live.”

“Here to Work” advocates say extending legal work permits will help unite communities, stabilize the workforce and promote fair wages.

“The purpose is to expand work permits for all, especially to people who have been undocumented in the U.S. for, now, decades,” said Laura Mendoza, immigration organizer at the Resurrection Project. “We’re talking about the average time that people have been undocumented is around 16 years, so we want to make sure that they have some protections. I think … it was wonderful to be part of that meeting to see people from different sectors — from the private sectors, to faith leaders, to civic leaders — all coming together and saying this is a protection that is needed for people who have been here, who have been contributing to this country, and who have been making this country what it is now.”

But opponents of the “Here to Work” campaign said granting more work permits to long-term undocumented immigrants could come at a cost to taxpayers and drive down wages for legal citizens.

“If you formalize that, you are literally opening up the floodgates even worse than they already have,” said state Sen. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport). “J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson and others have essentially rolled out the red carpet for migrants and illegal immigrants who come to the state of Illinois, and we just can’t sustain it. And it’s siphoning off resources for those that have lived here legally and have for decades. And so, I think it comes down to priorities. We certainly have empathy, but we also have a finite amount of dollars that we can spend in this state. And we are siphoning off billions and billions of dollars for migrants and illegal immigrants that should be used for lawful citizens of our state.”

According to a report released by the Latino Policy Forum, there are 480,000 long-term undocumented residents in Illinois and Chicago — including 320,000 Mexican residents and 40,000 Black residents — who make up 17% of the population and 26% of the workforce, contributing $1.5 billion in taxes each year. Since August 2022, nearly 39,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago, according to city data.