CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - In a follow up to a story broke by WBBM last week, The Salvation Army clarified what their shelter employees can and can’t do after one staffer was accused of mistreating newly arrived asylum seekers and then reassigned.
“We’ve been hearing about him mistreating them, basically threatening them that if they take stuff from us they can’t com in, if they leave at a certain time, they can’t come in…Literally, they’re on lockdown, literally as we speak, like they are prisoners,” Delilah Martinez, founder of Pilsen based non-profit The Mural Movement, said.
“(I’m) so sick to my stomach, man. These are human beings, man,” Martinez added.
Martinez and partners brought a number of concerns to light on possible mistreatment of asylum seekers housed at the Shield of Hope facility, prompting the Salvation Army to go on record. They told WBBM that individuals can not be locked out of the shelter, they can come and go as they please, they can bring food in, they can keep shoes, coats and other clothing and resources received while off the property. Also, employees can not keep non-profits like the Mural Movement from providing individualized care for the asylum seekers.
“There’s a few of them that start to sneak to us because they say they need blankets because they’re freezing in there. They actually take one of our mats that we put down to put all the stuff on and actually keep that because that’s how cold they are in there,” Martinez revealed.
Donations made directly to The Mural Movement, located at 2015 S. Laflin in Pilsen, have gone directly to over 3,000 asylum seekers that have arrived in the Chicago area thus far. 10,000 to 15,000 more are expected to arrive soon.
Martinez said that the most needed items are shoes and coats for both kids and adults, along with new socks, underwear (including bras) and any warm clothing.
“Literally, the families are walking, there’s a few rounds of families arriving, walking with no shoes, no socks. There’s kids, there’s infants, there’s toddlers, there’s pregnant women, all types of people, no shoes, no socks,” Martinez said.
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Representatives from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth’s office have now met with The Mural Movement at their headquarters in Pilsen at Vault Gallerie, with Duckworth promising to support their efforts.
“We’re glad that some of them (migrants) are messaging us, saying that they’re depressed, they want to cry, but they don’t want to say anything because they have nowhere to go, and they know it’s better than where they came from, and they don’t want to get deported. Really? You don’t think that these families have been through enough already?” said Martinez.
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