According to its website, the Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income Pilot will provide $500 monthly cash payments to 3,250 Cook County residents for two years with "no strings attached." Those who apply must make under $70,000 a year for a household of four and will not be asked their citizenship status.
"Given it's Chicago, it's hardly a surprise that they are willing to give money away to people who are in the country illegally," comments Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "Chicago has limited resources. The state of Illinois has limited resources. There's a lot of need, and basically what they are saying to other people who might need that assistance is, 'You're just going to have to step aside, because we're going to give it to illegal aliens.'"
Mehlman notices that Mayor Lori Lightfoot's (D) complaints about the influx of migrants have been carefully worded.
"[It's] only the ones that these governors are sending them -- not the ones that the Biden administration is allowing to come into the country," he tells AFN.
Meanwhile, Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) has declared a state of emergency in the state. But Mehlman submits the Democrats cannot claim they are in a state of emergency while simultaneously giving illegals more than $1.6 million every month.
"It simply defies logic," he contends, adding that "a lot of things in Chicago defy logic."
The FAIR spokesman concludes that any funds distributed to help low-income households in Cook County should go needy citizens, not to those who are living there illegally.
