11.582 million Illinoisans

As of July 1, 1987, the Census Bureau estimates that there are 11,582,000 people in Illinois — 155,000 more than it counted in 1980 and 370,000 more than it estimated in 1984. Also the bureau's most recent (1986) estimate puts Chicago's population at 3,009,538 — over the 3 million mark again and looking a lot better than its 1984 figure of 2,992,472, which we never believed anyway.
Source: Most recent update. Illinois Housing Development Authority.

But how many of us are legal?

Nobody knows. Nobody knows how many of us are illegal either, i.e. living and working in the U.S. without the necessary permits. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimates there are 6.5 million undocumented workers in the U.S. (but says it could be anywhere from 3 million to 12 million).
Source: Christian Science Monitor, February 25, 1988.

Amnesty

The 1986 Immigration Control and Reform Act seeks to discourage illegal immigration to the U.S.A. and to grant legal status to longtime illegal residents. The act declared an amnesty from May 5, 1987, to May 4, 1988, to allow people who have lived illegally in the U.S. since 1982 to apply for temporary residence and work permits, the first step towards citizenship.
Source: Ibid.

Amnesty numbers

Illinois ranks 4th among states and Chicago 5th among cities in the number of people applying for legalization. (Illinois also ranks 6th as a destination for legal immigrants.)

As of March 23, 78,835 people had applied in Illinois. Of these about 2,000 were applying under special provisions for farm workers.

Nationwide 1,432,732 people had filed for legalization, including 334,340 farm workers.

In both cases fewer people applied than originally estimated.
Source: INS, Chicago and Washington, D.C.; Wall Street Journal, March 8, 1988.

Who's applying?

In Illinois about 78 percent of those applying for legalization are from Mexico; 11 percent are from Poland; 3 percent from the Philippines, 2 percent from Guatemala and the rest from many other countries.
Source: INS, Chicago.

Hopes

"After May 4 there will be no mass effort to find and deport. Many people will leave because they will have problems finding jobs due to sanctions against employers in the new law."
Source: Ibid.

Fears

"After May 4, one way or another, several hundred thousand people will still be out there working or surviving."
Source: Travelers' and Immigrants' Aid, Chicago.

Doubts

"I don't think we're reaching everyone because they're still afraid of coming forward. We definitely should extend the time limit."
Source: Project NOW, Rock Island Community Action Agency.

Critiques

"Some families are separated. The parents qualify but not the teenagers in the family; the husband qualifies but not the wife. But I think most of the people try to apply who can — the main problem is that people who have lived here a long time have stayed out of the country longer than allowed. In 1982 when there was unemployment here, people went home to visit their relatives."
Source: Central Sembrador. Rockford Diocese.

Wishes

"We cover 28 counties of southern Illinois. We could use more funding. There's no INS office downstate. . . . there's only one or two [outreach] workers."
Source: Belleville Diocesan Social Services Office, Marion.

Needs

"There needs to be an extension of the application period and a broadening of the eligibility requirements."
Source: Refugee and Immigration Program, Illinois Conference of Churches, Springfield.

Goals

"It [the immigration law] should curtail unfair competition for employers who play it square. . . . I hope INS will jump on those who are hiring illegals deliberately to pay low wages and abuse them with unsafe working conditions."Source: Illinois State Chamber of Commerce

Graffiti

Painted on a levee on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande: "Are you sure you don't need us anymore?"
Source: "Crossover Dreams." The Chicago Tribune Magazine, April 3, 1988.

If there really are 11,582,000 people in Illinois —

And if we divvied everything up, we would each get about 3.07 acres of land, 9 pounds of apples (2 or 3 to a pound), 108 bushels of corn, 2.84 gallons of ice cream and 1 laying hen plus a couple of drumsticks.
Source: The Natural Resources of Illinois.

General funds

The general funds balance at the end of March was $84.806 million — or $7.32 for each and every person in the state. The average daily available balance was $94.322 million.
Source: Office of the Comptroller.

Unemployment rates

March's national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.6 percent, down a point from February. In Illinois the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 7.3 percent from 7.5 percent in March.

There were 5.749 million people in the state's work force in March. 5.530 million of them working (an all-time record for the month) and 419,000 jobless. Jobs unexpectedly declined by 71,000 from last month. This was caused by bad weather and scattered layoffs in mining, trucking and railroads.

The final unemployment rates for the month of January in the state's metro areas were:

Aurora-Elgin, 6.1 percent.
Bloomington-Normal, 5.4 percent.
Champaign-Urbana-Rantoul, 4.7 percent.
Chicago, 6.4 percent.
Davenport, Rock Island, Moline (Illinois sector), 8.8 percent.
Decatur, 10.1 percent.
Joliet, 8.4 percent.
Kankakee, 10.5 percent.
Lake County, 4.8 percent.
Peoria, 7.4 percent.
Rockford, 8.4 percent.
Springfield, 6.1 percent.
St. Louis (Illinois sector), 9.5 percent.
Source: Department of Employment Security

Margaret S. Knoepfle

May 1988 | Illinois Issues | 6