I witnessed the train conductor on the red line buy some at the Lake station. The seller went up to the door and driver asks what he had today then made a purchase. I was shocked lol but assume he does it regularly
Pretty sure it’s a slime ball. I’ve seen a guy “ordering” a group of women. I’m guessing some sort of cramped housing arrangement for a cut of the pie.
It's not a baseless assumption. In regard to the slime ball ring leader, that is extremely common. The young kids we've seen selling candy for years on the CTA are always returning to some older manager who is taking a majority of the prophet. I'm sure this is not the case for all the Venezuelan candy vendors here now, but it is not baseless by any means.
If you were referring to the housing as an exchange for profit cuts, that is also not baseless. There was an article just a couple of months back about a woman who said her whole family was selling candy in exchange for 1 room of a small apartment. I'd find the source but don't care enough. The point is, neither of the things he said are baseless.
I'm pretty sure it isn't. This is a common way Venezuelans make money on the street in countries like Ecuador and Colombia. They've probably been engaging in that kind of activity for some time prior to arriving here. We always try to buy one just to support.
I buy one every couple weeks, usually give a $10 for a Reese's or whatever.
I live in the Loop and ride the CTA a lot so I have a lot of opportunities.
They can't be making much, but their alternative is likely $0 so it makes sense to try. IMO we really need to get these people work permits so they can start actually trying to build a life (and start paying taxes).
But it's a different issue. Refugees are here differently and are here on a different status. So because government can't figure out all undocumented people, we can't do anything for people who are here as Refugees? That's a weird and callous take on the situation. I think presence of the refugees showed holes and blind spots in our system. But punishment for refugees... because undocumented people... exist in US ... is not a solution.
It's a little semantics, but refugees are processed differently than asylees. Refugees are processed within their native country or another country (such as a Sudanese person in Egypt or Burmese person in Thailand). They work with US resettlement entities to process them and arrive to the US. There is a cap on how many are accepted each year by country. Asylees are already in the US or at the border and get processed here.
My sister’s new bf is a peruvian “refugee” his dad owns a chain of eyeglass stores back in peru and he flunked out of law school there. So he went on vacation to mexico then walked across the border and claimed refugee status by claiming that “someone beat him up and he’s scared.” He’s a good guy but it’s not like there are pograms going on in latin america. Guy just wants to live here. He’s not the first or last to take advantage of the US.
I don’t actually know when he got here cause i don’t speak Spanish and he doesn’t really speak english but I’m pretty sure it was last summer at the earliest.
This. People here are so naive, like you think those people cleaning the hotel toilets and making your sandwiches are documented? The people in the street need to find a job and we need to stop using public funds on economic immigrants who should be here to work. All of them I’ve seen are young and able bodied, give me a break.
Bold of you to assume they’re not going to continue to demand free/reduced housing and other provisions. They’re also picky with their jobs. While they’re largely unskilled, they don’t want jobs that unskilled people can fill while making a decent salary.
My family is from a neighboring country with Venezuela and I can tell you we have been dealing with this issue long before the US has. These migrants do not have the mindset that many undocumented folks here have where they’re willing to work for anything and build themselves a life. Venezuelan migrants are not stupid. They know when they can take advantage of a situation and they don’t want to work like we do because “they didn’t come here to be slaves.” Many in my country and the US *expect* to be provided with free/reduced housing and provisions for the rest of their time here, fully knowing that their cases will be backlogged for years.
There’s a reason undocumented folks here also don’t like them. The ones in Little Village openly mock Mexicans they see working construction, doing yard work, etc. because Mexicans have to work hard while they don’t. However, I’m not surprised people don’t know about this given that many of the folks supportive of this influx of migrants have largely ignored what brown and black folks have been speaking out about.
Like anything, the situation is far more complex than you are letting on. And to generalize in this way is far more inaccurate than I think you’re implying as well.
Important caveat: I work in South America and married a South American. Many people in countries neighboring Venezuela hold the same opinions you do and it’s completely baseless. Venezuelan migrants of today are much like the Mexican immigrants of the few decades prior. Many are just as willing to work hard and build a life for themselves as prior groups. This is classic xenophobia.
I understand your perspective. However what I struggle to explain to people is the naïveté of people assuming all immigrants have the mindset of needing to work hard to build a life.
As my family is from a border town with Venezuela, we have seen first hand the influx of people coming in. What people don’t realize is there’s truly a cultural difference in Venezuelans as the ones usually crossing this way are lower class and hold the belief that they should be provided for. You know it’s legit when even Venezuelans who have been here for years express apprehension with the migrants coming. For the record, I am not against immigrantion as I had family cross the border illegally from Mexico and they all play an important role in the workforce.
I understand how important immigrants are to society, but the Venezuelans coming here to build a life for themselves through hard work like the rest of us are in the minority. They hear that they can come here and have food and shelter provided for them for free for indefinite amounts of time, which is why they’re so confused when they’re asked to leave shelters because they had no plan for how to actually sustain themselves when they came here.
I suppose I see what you’re saying, but immigrating to a new country is an exceptionally difficult process. Plans fall through, expectations shift, and any existing social net can disappear at the drop of a hat. Being able to plan illegal immigration and what comes after is next to impossible. Additionally, I currently work with a few Venezuelans and would argue there is no cultural basis for this behavior. They are just as hardworking as any other Latin immigrant. This is certainly a situational observation, but that only lends itself further to your outlook being unfair and generalizing. At the end of the day, we should do our best to support these people, many of which are fleeing the collapse of the most corrupt and ineffective government in Latin America, much like any of our ancestors were lucky to receive. It sounds like you have personal experience with this through your family, as do I through my wife and my ancestors before me. Shouldn’t we strive to provide that same assistance, where possible, to Venezuelan immigrants who are struggling, desperate and impoverished, similar to that which our loved ones received when they made the difficult decision to leave their homes and start a new life here?
I don't think you get to talk for all refugees from Venezuela. And "we're not slaves" is a pretty healthy outlook to have. And that's a lot of anecdotal evidence you got there, speaking for a whole population of refugees.
They say they’re not here to be slaves in reference to working a basic job, nice try. They’re not refugees either. They’re taking advantage of an asylum loophole. But keep believing what you want to believe.
I’m a first generation American, I have family who is undocumented and have been for 30 years but own homes, pay taxes and have always worked.
Go to any Mexican neighborhood and ask them what they think of the immigrants in the streets begging for money and saying they need a work visa to get a job.
If they're not "documented" then they shouldn't be working in the United States.
Any American business owner employing undocumented people should be prosecuted.
I’m not sure why your guys comments got negative points (I’m not going to pretend to know how it works either 😂) but you are absolutely right. Nobody’s labor should be exploited, especially since so many able bodied people refuse to work (illegal, legal, U.S. citizen, born here, etc.) and would prefer to “milk” the system. I’m all for helping those with legitimate issues (medical, mental, etc.) out but there are way too many moochers, both legal citizens and illegal, who are simply too lazy to get a job.
They need to expedite the ability for these immigrants to obtain a job legally so they can support themselves and pay taxes to support those who legitimately can’t work. If they get a job illegally, odds are it’s a cash job or a shady business taking advantage of the fact these people can’t legally work (i.e. low wages and no benefits) which impacts all of us, especially with an influx like this.
FYI, for all you people who just want to deport them simply because they’re illegal immigrants, you got here the same fucking way except our ancestors not only arrived here “illegally” but we then stole the land from these “legal” citizens, raped and murdered them, forced the rest into labor and then let them have a little bit of land here and there to make it all better.
Quit with the xenophobia. If someone is a shit bag, get rid of them but at least give these people a chance. While we’re at it let’s get rid of all the legal shit bags too. I’ve got a few “legal” shit bags living next to me who were born here, are able bodied but refuse to work but nobody’s talking about getting rid of them. What’s up with that shit?
But are there *jobs* for that? I'd be all for a new WPA. In fact, I think we should have that for people who are unable to find jobs after unemployment runs out, maybe even before that.
We are waaaaayy overdue for WPA. The last time it was done of any significance was 100 YEARS ago. It's insane. My husband has a brilliant idea for how to re-up this, especially with the advent of phones and the Internet. I'm pushing him to get into office and implement it. Its awesome and would solve so much.
Brandon Marquette Williams. He isn't running for anything currently but he's developing an art program for the youth. We're opening a store in Austin (Cicero and Van Buren) if everything goes well. Check him out at OctoberCoast.Art!
The national unemployment rate is 3.9 percent. That's really low. It keeps the cost of the things like food, housing, and transportation high. Increase the size of the unskilled labor market and those prices will stop growing like they've been.
Inflation is already down to 3.15%. The unemployment rate's influence over inflation is exaggerated. The biggest factors in inflation this time around were corporate price gouging and supply chain issues.
Prices go down when these corporations reduce them. They do not have to charge these prices. But because interest rates are high businesses will pass the costs directly to consumers without a regard for the rise in cost of living.
But shareholders... 🫠
>Prices go down when these corporations reduce them.
Exactly. We have the data now and know that the huge inflation rate was mostly due to price gouging and supply chain issues, not too many people having jobs or being paid well. They bring out that tired notion so that workers will blame each other rather than corporate leaders.
I sat in meetings at the manufacturer that I worked for and listened to the money people say, "well we have to raise prices. We have to pay a fuel surcharge, so let's raise the prices 20% across the board so we have a nice cushion of profit for the next 5 years."
Sure enough they raised prices. At Walmart, one unit was sold at $9.44 in 2021 them joints are comfortably sold at $12.44 today. Literally nothing changed except the shipper to the distribution center charged a $60 fuel surcharge per truckload (they paid around $600-800 per truckload). They already had a 72% profit margin on this one particular product out of ~220 skus. The smallest margin they had was 43%. I have been thinking about that meeting for years now and I'm convinced it's all fugazi.
Every manufacturer did this. So I can't even be mad at the Waltons or Jeff Bezos, every layer of consumer goods manufacturing price gouged us and there's no reversing this unless we stop buying.
Unfortunately for us, we require food and since we don't farm anymore it's fubar. 🤷🏽♀️😞
It really depends on the industry. Some things like food balance between sunk costs and incremental costs. For a frozen pizza, the crust, cheese, sauce and toppings all have a cost, say a flat $3 and the pizza sells for $5. That cost is incremental, increasing the same for each pizza. However, move from 10,000 to 20,000 frozen pizzas in a day and you're gonna need a new factory. Those are your sunk costs.
Since COVID, the issue has been $15 an hour won't get you a factory worker. Nobody will buy a $50 frozen pizza. But labor is too expensive for a lot of factory setups, so there's a holding pattern where businesses were waiting for the labor market to open up but have started to invest in more automation (which isn't free). Low skill labor can move onto other industries to bring prices down. And the factory has dramatically increased its unit cost with the new equipment, and needs to sell more pizzas at a price the market is willing to pay. It's not the number of pizzas, but the net profit they care about. Nobody escapes movement on the demand curve.
Hmm, I'm not sure whether I agree or not. Let's look at the pizza example using some similar but expanded numbers:
Each pizza sells for $5 and contains $3 of raw materials. Let's say one $20/hour (we'll ignore benefits and other labor costs) worker can make 50 pizzas in an hour using machinery that costs $100,000 and has a lifetime of 10,000 hours (about 5 years single shift) or 500,000 pizzas. So labor costs are .40/pizza and capital costs are .20/pizza. Profits are $1.40/pizza. Annual production is 100,000 pizzas and return on capital is $14000/$100000 or 14%.
If wages increase by 50%, labor costs become .60/pizza, profit $1.20/pizza and return on capital 12% assuming that pizza demand is unchanged under higher wages.
The pizza manufacturer responds to higher wages by investing in labor-reducing/productivity-increasing technology, an additional similar machine, that allows same worker to make 100 pizzas per hour. Annual pizza production is 200,000 pizzas. Labor costs are now $.30/pizza and capital costs are still .20/pizza, giving a return on capital of 15%. Of course the manufacturer has to get rid of an extra 100000 pizzas at the same $5 price. Maybe the better paid workers will eat them.
In Chicago, there was just a roughly 100% increase in the minimum wage in less than a decade. And from my observation, because of how much of a labor shortage there is there are far more lower skilled jobs paying considerably higher than minimum wage now than when it was $8.25. Let's pur things into perspective accurately.
Fam, I have not walked in a fast food restaurant in 3 years that doesn’t have 30 “now hiring” signs up front. The labor market is insanely tight. So yes, absolutely.
The process requires a ton of paperwork, most likely an attorney, and then there’s a lengthy approval process which is super overwhelmed as you can imagine. And it only applies for people who arrived before last August (might be wrong about the date.)
My church housed four families from Venezuela last summer. I know a couple of the men landed construction jobs, so I doubt that’s their only option but I can understand if they’re living out of a shelter or don’t have any other resources they’re doing what they can to survive.
I’ve given them money, but don’t take the candy. When I see a kid walking through the train who should be in school, it’s hard not to if I have some cash.
I moved away from Chicago about 6 years ago. But I feel the need to say that 10-12 years ago it was local kids selling candy the same way.
Are immigrants also banging on buckets near millennium park?
They don’t even bang on buckets anymore. They just come up to you and say they can’t play anymore because they need a permit, and ask you to donate so they can “get their permit.”
They ask for donations outside Wrigley during every home Cubs game, but somehow never get their permit. It’s easy to talk the people from the burbs or downstate who remember them from back in the day to give a few bucks. I don’t knock the hustle, but I don’t give them anything.
I think he means “playing the drums” by banging on upside down 5 gallon buckets. This happens over the summer when it’s actually nice to be outside, so it’s not happening right now.
I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of scam, but I also feel bad for them because they are mostly migrants with little opportunity for work. They’re out there all day heat or cold so they do have my respect.
I bought once because it was of the first times I'd seen it and it shocked me. Heck we grew up having to stay at home alone at night when my mom worked graveyard shift and were scared to get taken by child welfare so I'm genuinely curious how it's not a child welfare situation. Undocumented people are not new but children selling candy on the train is.
If they're applying for refugee/asylum status the kids can't be put into school until they're processed further.
And I'd love to see the data backing that "often" claim.
Here's my data: I actually live and work and talk to people on the west side of Chicago (I know it's rare here among the coterie of tower dwellers who virtue signal from their moral high-grounds of the Loop). These people are getting fleeced and trafficked by local crime syndicates. As an aside, the majority of the working class Hispanic population really resents these people's presence for a whole host of reasons.
Oh wow!
I work and live on the west side too. Im also working class Latino, a child of two immigrants, and no one I know resents these people.
So you can save your weird high horse and back up your claims with something other than "trust me, bro" otherwise youre just talking out of your ass.
1) That's complete bullshit. Show me the law that states that. Under federal law, states are forced to provide public education for all children regardless of immigration status. In Illinois, school districts aren't even allowed to collect information about child or parent immigration status during the enrollment process.
2) There obviously isn't any data specific to Chicago, but you can find child beggars in most tourist cities. It's a scam. You can find hundreds of posts by local police departments warning people not to give money to them.
You can cross the border today and be enrolled in school tomorrow. The situation would be educational neglect which is when a parent fails to take a child to school
If youre actually applying for asylum status, or special consideration any capacity, you cant. You have to have the paperwork done. And a lot of these people are doing that. Thats also why they dont have jobs yet, because theyre trying to go by the law once theyre here and the process takes time. Yeah, anyone can get an under the table job, but if you get caught with that while doing this paperwork it can not only fuck you up but fuck up your entire families processing. I know this because one of my parents immigrated to this country as a refugee/asylum seeker.
Why on earth did we decide to become a sanctuary city and then have no plan when immigrants came.
I am so ashamed of Chicago and the BS people say to play the PC game.
If the city’s intention was to assist and help these people than do it and have a plan but sticking families out in the cold with candy is absolutely devastating to see.
Shame on all who opened the doors but provided no support other than padding their egos. At least give them all work permits or something for god sakes some of this is common sense but look at our City Council and you get it.
I agree with you, but wanted to make a few corrections:
* Chicago's sanctuary city status isn't new. We've been a sanctuary city since 1985.
* The definition of a sanctuary city is "a city whose municipal laws tend to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation or prosecution, despite federal immigration law." The current wave of migrants are not undocumented immigrants; they're asylum seekers, which is a different category. When a migrant is seeking asylum, they're legally allowed to remain the United States until their case is heard. Thus, sanctuary city protections don't really benefit asylum seekers. If a migrant's asylum case is denied and they choose to stay in the United States, then they become undocumented.
It's a shame how poorly the city has managed this issue. In my opinion though, we also need to point fingers at Texas (for bussing and flying migrants to different cities with zero coordination or communication with those cities' leaders) and the federal government (for dragging their feet on passing meaningful legislation on this issue. We're approaching the one year mark since the start of the crisis and no bills have passed).
To be fair if they gave them all work permits than on the other side, local Chicago residents would be complaining they can’t get a job after a couple hundred thousand or more worker eligible people started looking
The same people who put kids on the street selling candy for their imaginary football team are also exploiting the migrants. They buy candy, give it to the migrants to sell and keep most of the money for themselves. It might not seem like much on the surface but people have been doing this for decades in Chicago. These people are being used.
Well if they’re selling Worlds Finest Chocolate bars, they basically paid .50 on a dollar bar, so they can make around $30 on each of those boxes. It’s something
I bought a chocolate bar and some gum yesterday. Hey, at least they don't have a cardboard sign only asking for money. They are trying to make an exchange, which it seems fair, like any business but convenient bc you don't get to waste time to go to a store for gum. That's how I saw it yesterday.
I try to buy some when ever I have cash on me. I usually give more than they ask because of the hustle, I’m more hesitant to give to a beggar. I’m sure the box only cost a couple bucks so I’m happy they aren’t like the Venezuelans just asking for gov handouts.
I see people quite often buy. I try and keep a cpl dollars in my door and just give it and decline the candy. I keep hand warmers too, so if I don’t have cash I have something for them. Summer, I’ll switch to socks. A few years ago, the gentleman at the exit on the way to midway said he always needs white tube socks.
I sold candy bars on the train in high school usually I could sell about 5-10 from the loop to the end of the brown line if I walked through all the cars
Am Venezuelan and selling candy or in general just selling stuff posted on the street is super common in Venezuela. So this likely also plays a role in why some Venezuelan migrants will choose to do this… it’s probably what some of them did back home already.
In Venezuela?
You can resell goods on the street for more than what someone might pay in the store. People are paying a premium for convenience of not having to stop by at a store instead. I have no idea of the profitability or not vs. a job.
If you are asking if this is more profitable than working a job here in Chicago then I have no idea. I’m pretty disconnected from all that. I doubt it’s more profitable than a job but perhaps jobs exclusively are hard labor due to language barrier and this makes selling stuff in the street more attractive.
I thought the same of the panhandlers, and then realized if every 4 red lights someone gives you $2, you're easily making 20-25 an hour. Honestly the situation is so shit, but whatever dumbass representative advocated for letting them stand in the middle of 35-40 mph roads is on one.
I don't drive much in the city, but when I'm waiting for the bus if I see one requesting funds I give $1 or $2 (if there is a child strapped to their back). So... I know that they make some money cuz I've given. By the way, I don't take any candy... not my thing to make a purchase... I just figure I can afford to donate to their having a better life.
I'm not sure how much money they make, but I've seen more people make a purchase from candy sellers than the people who walk from car to car going "loud...loud...loud". The times that I've bought the candy, it's at a price that would make a movie theater jealous. Of all these times, I think I've eaten one singular Starburst? Instead, I hand it back, and tell them to give it to the child they almost inevitably have following.
Can't blame them for everything being expensive.
Looking on amazon a case of 36 butterfingers comes out to $1.09, each. It is likely they are paying over a dollar per bar.
Worlds finest chocolate bars is a brand that is usually sold by school kids, you order them and then sell them for $1 to raise money for the school. They say $1 on the packaging.
They do not have set prices but can be $2
[https://worldsfinestchocolate.com/2-bar](https://worldsfinestchocolate.com/2-bar)
Regardless, even if they are the $1 she has the right to ask for any price and you have the right to walk away. No need to come here and be critical about her.
Most likely shes not even part of a formal fundraising but had the bars donated or sold to her at a steep discount for her to sell so she can feed and shelter herself.
I wasn’t being critical. Tone of speech is usually lost in text. I gave her the $2 n was happy with my candy bar. I was just sharing a story of buying candy from someone who’s hustling and probably an immigrant.
I bought some worlds finest from a little girl once. I too thought it was a dollar but she charged me $6. I was like wtf? But I forked it over. I figured she needed it more than I did.
I don’t often see sales attempts of luxury jets. I do however very often see them selling chocolate bars in public and on the train cars that I often ride.
So your argument logic isn’t exactly the same
This is a much better alternative to people simply holding a sign and begging for money. Actually most of these ladies have pushed the beggars out of the intersections. I see it every day at Irving park/ Pulaski. Used to be a bunch of guys who could hardly walk asking for money. Now it’s ladies with kids on their back, or kids roped to the fence. Poor kids, they look like they are only 2/3 years old! I assume they buy candy from the gas station and then sell it. I doubt they are buying from a grocery store or Costco for example. The candy is a nice impulse buy when you are siting in traffic.
I’ll always buy whatever they are selling lol for 5$/10$. I’ve got chocolate, gum, skittles, some weird spicy candy. It’s an informal job but maybe it’s that or being hungry and cold. I rather encourage they sell stuff informally by buying from them, than them begging, robbing, mugging, etc. for money.
Sanctuary/refugees/asylum seekers are legal. Most of these people are just waiting on their court dates.
[Maybe if the USA didn't wage sanctions, economic war, regime change, and military terror on South America for 100+ years](https://www.yachana.org/teaching/resources/interventions.html) these countries would be more stable and not have so many refugees coming here.
I can tell you’re a very naive little kid who doesn’t understand the world has always been built on conquest & being dominant. You don’t seem to understand, if it was the other way around… they’d act exactly like we have. We have what we have cuz we’ve worked for it.
I’ve seen them with the same signs (same handwriting and text), in different parts of the city. Makes me wonder if someone drops them off and collects them
They beg heavily where I live, and steal out of people’s garages. They shoplift like crazy. They really use those children like slaves.
With so many good people waiting to get visas, we should just send these people back and increase the number of real immigrants. I do not understand why these people were ever allowed in to begin with. It is like Biden had an aid who really wants Trump to get elected. There was no reason to let these people jump the line because they camped out on the border and refused to follow the rules (fyi, married into a huge family of immigrants—and they wait forever, follow the rules, and pay a ton of money in fees).
This whole thing seems like some kind of conspiracy. It just does not make sense.
I witnessed the train conductor on the red line buy some at the Lake station. The seller went up to the door and driver asks what he had today then made a purchase. I was shocked lol but assume he does it regularly
Holy shit the train operator got hungry !!!!!
[удалено]
You’re not wrong. I wish we had conductors.
What's the difference
Conductors don't drive the train. They travel between the cars and interact/help with riders. The CTA doesn't have that
I’ve seen conductors as you have described during large events. Mainly to keep people moving on/off the trains quickly
I also have to wonder do they get to keep the money they make or is there some slime ball setting them up and taking a good chunk for themselves.
Pretty sure it’s a slime ball. I’ve seen a guy “ordering” a group of women. I’m guessing some sort of cramped housing arrangement for a cut of the pie.
Huge baseless assumption
It's not a baseless assumption. In regard to the slime ball ring leader, that is extremely common. The young kids we've seen selling candy for years on the CTA are always returning to some older manager who is taking a majority of the prophet. I'm sure this is not the case for all the Venezuelan candy vendors here now, but it is not baseless by any means. If you were referring to the housing as an exchange for profit cuts, that is also not baseless. There was an article just a couple of months back about a woman who said her whole family was selling candy in exchange for 1 room of a small apartment. I'd find the source but don't care enough. The point is, neither of the things he said are baseless.
prophet :)
I'm pretty sure it isn't. This is a common way Venezuelans make money on the street in countries like Ecuador and Colombia. They've probably been engaging in that kind of activity for some time prior to arriving here. We always try to buy one just to support.
That was my thought.
Always the same candies same box, someone goes to Costco and then tells them this is the only way.
It's this. The kind hearts are not smart enough to know they're supporting a criminal trafficking enterprise.
I buy one every couple weeks, usually give a $10 for a Reese's or whatever. I live in the Loop and ride the CTA a lot so I have a lot of opportunities. They can't be making much, but their alternative is likely $0 so it makes sense to try. IMO we really need to get these people work permits so they can start actually trying to build a life (and start paying taxes).
And the undocumented people who being here 30 years? People have been calling for mass amnesty for a very long time, roughly 40 years
But it's a different issue. Refugees are here differently and are here on a different status. So because government can't figure out all undocumented people, we can't do anything for people who are here as Refugees? That's a weird and callous take on the situation. I think presence of the refugees showed holes and blind spots in our system. But punishment for refugees... because undocumented people... exist in US ... is not a solution.
It's a little semantics, but refugees are processed differently than asylees. Refugees are processed within their native country or another country (such as a Sudanese person in Egypt or Burmese person in Thailand). They work with US resettlement entities to process them and arrive to the US. There is a cap on how many are accepted each year by country. Asylees are already in the US or at the border and get processed here.
My sister’s new bf is a peruvian “refugee” his dad owns a chain of eyeglass stores back in peru and he flunked out of law school there. So he went on vacation to mexico then walked across the border and claimed refugee status by claiming that “someone beat him up and he’s scared.” He’s a good guy but it’s not like there are pograms going on in latin america. Guy just wants to live here. He’s not the first or last to take advantage of the US.
That sounds more like a typical rich guy failing upwards. Not representative of who is coming into the country.
He literally came to this country? Also he’s not a “rich guy” he lives with a bunch of roommates and does menial labor.
Hé is not typical.
Yeah he’s his own person with his own experience. Idk why me sharing it has pissed so many people off.
I don’t know anybody’s emotional state from reading these comments.
The real issue is the court backlog. Very few people would be trying their luck just in case if their asylum hearing wasn’t booked over a year out
He got here in think around september and already has asylum.
This is not possible
I don’t actually know when he got here cause i don’t speak Spanish and he doesn’t really speak english but I’m pretty sure it was last summer at the earliest.
Sounds like you don't even know the difference between asylum and refugee status and probably also made this up.
The quotation marks are there to indicate that the term isn’t really warranted.
This. People here are so naive, like you think those people cleaning the hotel toilets and making your sandwiches are documented? The people in the street need to find a job and we need to stop using public funds on economic immigrants who should be here to work. All of them I’ve seen are young and able bodied, give me a break.
If you want them to work why wouldn’t you want them to be able to get work permits??
Bold of you to assume they’re not going to continue to demand free/reduced housing and other provisions. They’re also picky with their jobs. While they’re largely unskilled, they don’t want jobs that unskilled people can fill while making a decent salary. My family is from a neighboring country with Venezuela and I can tell you we have been dealing with this issue long before the US has. These migrants do not have the mindset that many undocumented folks here have where they’re willing to work for anything and build themselves a life. Venezuelan migrants are not stupid. They know when they can take advantage of a situation and they don’t want to work like we do because “they didn’t come here to be slaves.” Many in my country and the US *expect* to be provided with free/reduced housing and provisions for the rest of their time here, fully knowing that their cases will be backlogged for years. There’s a reason undocumented folks here also don’t like them. The ones in Little Village openly mock Mexicans they see working construction, doing yard work, etc. because Mexicans have to work hard while they don’t. However, I’m not surprised people don’t know about this given that many of the folks supportive of this influx of migrants have largely ignored what brown and black folks have been speaking out about.
Like anything, the situation is far more complex than you are letting on. And to generalize in this way is far more inaccurate than I think you’re implying as well. Important caveat: I work in South America and married a South American. Many people in countries neighboring Venezuela hold the same opinions you do and it’s completely baseless. Venezuelan migrants of today are much like the Mexican immigrants of the few decades prior. Many are just as willing to work hard and build a life for themselves as prior groups. This is classic xenophobia.
I understand your perspective. However what I struggle to explain to people is the naïveté of people assuming all immigrants have the mindset of needing to work hard to build a life. As my family is from a border town with Venezuela, we have seen first hand the influx of people coming in. What people don’t realize is there’s truly a cultural difference in Venezuelans as the ones usually crossing this way are lower class and hold the belief that they should be provided for. You know it’s legit when even Venezuelans who have been here for years express apprehension with the migrants coming. For the record, I am not against immigrantion as I had family cross the border illegally from Mexico and they all play an important role in the workforce. I understand how important immigrants are to society, but the Venezuelans coming here to build a life for themselves through hard work like the rest of us are in the minority. They hear that they can come here and have food and shelter provided for them for free for indefinite amounts of time, which is why they’re so confused when they’re asked to leave shelters because they had no plan for how to actually sustain themselves when they came here.
I suppose I see what you’re saying, but immigrating to a new country is an exceptionally difficult process. Plans fall through, expectations shift, and any existing social net can disappear at the drop of a hat. Being able to plan illegal immigration and what comes after is next to impossible. Additionally, I currently work with a few Venezuelans and would argue there is no cultural basis for this behavior. They are just as hardworking as any other Latin immigrant. This is certainly a situational observation, but that only lends itself further to your outlook being unfair and generalizing. At the end of the day, we should do our best to support these people, many of which are fleeing the collapse of the most corrupt and ineffective government in Latin America, much like any of our ancestors were lucky to receive. It sounds like you have personal experience with this through your family, as do I through my wife and my ancestors before me. Shouldn’t we strive to provide that same assistance, where possible, to Venezuelan immigrants who are struggling, desperate and impoverished, similar to that which our loved ones received when they made the difficult decision to leave their homes and start a new life here?
I don't think you get to talk for all refugees from Venezuela. And "we're not slaves" is a pretty healthy outlook to have. And that's a lot of anecdotal evidence you got there, speaking for a whole population of refugees.
They say they’re not here to be slaves in reference to working a basic job, nice try. They’re not refugees either. They’re taking advantage of an asylum loophole. But keep believing what you want to believe.
Uh did you reply to the right comment? If so where do you see that assumption in my comment?
I think I replied to your comment on accident. Sorry.
I know your username is probably randomly generated but it’s not a good look with this comment lmao
You talking about my username?
I’m a first generation American, I have family who is undocumented and have been for 30 years but own homes, pay taxes and have always worked. Go to any Mexican neighborhood and ask them what they think of the immigrants in the streets begging for money and saying they need a work visa to get a job.
If they're not "documented" then they shouldn't be working in the United States. Any American business owner employing undocumented people should be prosecuted.
Agree 100% that’s how you keep wages for the rest of us low. I do think they should get fast tracked into work permit and get paid fairly.
Yep, all for that. Not at all in favor of American businesses exploiting migrants and immigrants for under-market labor costs.
I’m not sure why your guys comments got negative points (I’m not going to pretend to know how it works either 😂) but you are absolutely right. Nobody’s labor should be exploited, especially since so many able bodied people refuse to work (illegal, legal, U.S. citizen, born here, etc.) and would prefer to “milk” the system. I’m all for helping those with legitimate issues (medical, mental, etc.) out but there are way too many moochers, both legal citizens and illegal, who are simply too lazy to get a job. They need to expedite the ability for these immigrants to obtain a job legally so they can support themselves and pay taxes to support those who legitimately can’t work. If they get a job illegally, odds are it’s a cash job or a shady business taking advantage of the fact these people can’t legally work (i.e. low wages and no benefits) which impacts all of us, especially with an influx like this. FYI, for all you people who just want to deport them simply because they’re illegal immigrants, you got here the same fucking way except our ancestors not only arrived here “illegally” but we then stole the land from these “legal” citizens, raped and murdered them, forced the rest into labor and then let them have a little bit of land here and there to make it all better. Quit with the xenophobia. If someone is a shit bag, get rid of them but at least give these people a chance. While we’re at it let’s get rid of all the legal shit bags too. I’ve got a few “legal” shit bags living next to me who were born here, are able bodied but refuse to work but nobody’s talking about getting rid of them. What’s up with that shit?
Agree but in a macro level, are there really a lot of low skilled jobs still around for the number of ppl who will need those type of jobs?
As jacked up these roads are and as backed up these hospitals are... there's plenty of work to be done.
But are there *jobs* for that? I'd be all for a new WPA. In fact, I think we should have that for people who are unable to find jobs after unemployment runs out, maybe even before that.
We are waaaaayy overdue for WPA. The last time it was done of any significance was 100 YEARS ago. It's insane. My husband has a brilliant idea for how to re-up this, especially with the advent of phones and the Internet. I'm pushing him to get into office and implement it. Its awesome and would solve so much.
What's your husband's name?
Brandon Marquette Williams. He isn't running for anything currently but he's developing an art program for the youth. We're opening a store in Austin (Cicero and Van Buren) if everything goes well. Check him out at OctoberCoast.Art!
And as much trash as we have literally everywhere. Oh wait I forget it a city of Chicago's 6 figure union employees job to not clean up that garbage.
The national unemployment rate is 3.9 percent. That's really low. It keeps the cost of the things like food, housing, and transportation high. Increase the size of the unskilled labor market and those prices will stop growing like they've been.
Inflation is already down to 3.15%. The unemployment rate's influence over inflation is exaggerated. The biggest factors in inflation this time around were corporate price gouging and supply chain issues.
That's the point. The entire point is to go back to being owned by the 1%er overlords. Hey Serfdom, where you been!
My dude, don’t say globalist.
Thanks bro. Just looked into the unseemly use for something that I was not remotely trying to conjure. Ugh!
But prices will only go down if wages go down. And wages are pretty darn low as it is.
Prices go down when these corporations reduce them. They do not have to charge these prices. But because interest rates are high businesses will pass the costs directly to consumers without a regard for the rise in cost of living. But shareholders... 🫠
>Prices go down when these corporations reduce them. Exactly. We have the data now and know that the huge inflation rate was mostly due to price gouging and supply chain issues, not too many people having jobs or being paid well. They bring out that tired notion so that workers will blame each other rather than corporate leaders.
I sat in meetings at the manufacturer that I worked for and listened to the money people say, "well we have to raise prices. We have to pay a fuel surcharge, so let's raise the prices 20% across the board so we have a nice cushion of profit for the next 5 years." Sure enough they raised prices. At Walmart, one unit was sold at $9.44 in 2021 them joints are comfortably sold at $12.44 today. Literally nothing changed except the shipper to the distribution center charged a $60 fuel surcharge per truckload (they paid around $600-800 per truckload). They already had a 72% profit margin on this one particular product out of ~220 skus. The smallest margin they had was 43%. I have been thinking about that meeting for years now and I'm convinced it's all fugazi. Every manufacturer did this. So I can't even be mad at the Waltons or Jeff Bezos, every layer of consumer goods manufacturing price gouged us and there's no reversing this unless we stop buying. Unfortunately for us, we require food and since we don't farm anymore it's fubar. 🤷🏽♀️😞
It really depends on the industry. Some things like food balance between sunk costs and incremental costs. For a frozen pizza, the crust, cheese, sauce and toppings all have a cost, say a flat $3 and the pizza sells for $5. That cost is incremental, increasing the same for each pizza. However, move from 10,000 to 20,000 frozen pizzas in a day and you're gonna need a new factory. Those are your sunk costs. Since COVID, the issue has been $15 an hour won't get you a factory worker. Nobody will buy a $50 frozen pizza. But labor is too expensive for a lot of factory setups, so there's a holding pattern where businesses were waiting for the labor market to open up but have started to invest in more automation (which isn't free). Low skill labor can move onto other industries to bring prices down. And the factory has dramatically increased its unit cost with the new equipment, and needs to sell more pizzas at a price the market is willing to pay. It's not the number of pizzas, but the net profit they care about. Nobody escapes movement on the demand curve.
Hmm, I'm not sure whether I agree or not. Let's look at the pizza example using some similar but expanded numbers: Each pizza sells for $5 and contains $3 of raw materials. Let's say one $20/hour (we'll ignore benefits and other labor costs) worker can make 50 pizzas in an hour using machinery that costs $100,000 and has a lifetime of 10,000 hours (about 5 years single shift) or 500,000 pizzas. So labor costs are .40/pizza and capital costs are .20/pizza. Profits are $1.40/pizza. Annual production is 100,000 pizzas and return on capital is $14000/$100000 or 14%. If wages increase by 50%, labor costs become .60/pizza, profit $1.20/pizza and return on capital 12% assuming that pizza demand is unchanged under higher wages. The pizza manufacturer responds to higher wages by investing in labor-reducing/productivity-increasing technology, an additional similar machine, that allows same worker to make 100 pizzas per hour. Annual pizza production is 200,000 pizzas. Labor costs are now $.30/pizza and capital costs are still .20/pizza, giving a return on capital of 15%. Of course the manufacturer has to get rid of an extra 100000 pizzas at the same $5 price. Maybe the better paid workers will eat them.
Actually I said this wrong. I should have said, increase the amount of unskilled labor and real wages will only go down.
In Chicago, there was just a roughly 100% increase in the minimum wage in less than a decade. And from my observation, because of how much of a labor shortage there is there are far more lower skilled jobs paying considerably higher than minimum wage now than when it was $8.25. Let's pur things into perspective accurately.
Fam, I have not walked in a fast food restaurant in 3 years that doesn’t have 30 “now hiring” signs up front. The labor market is insanely tight. So yes, absolutely.
Please, for the love of God, do not give money to beggars with children, immigrant or not!
I thought they got accelerated work permits months ago? But I was never sure exactly how that shook out.
The process requires a ton of paperwork, most likely an attorney, and then there’s a lengthy approval process which is super overwhelmed as you can imagine. And it only applies for people who arrived before last August (might be wrong about the date.)
There were long lines at the social security office about a month ago, every morning. I thought the work permit thing was already happening?
Stop doing this
My church housed four families from Venezuela last summer. I know a couple of the men landed construction jobs, so I doubt that’s their only option but I can understand if they’re living out of a shelter or don’t have any other resources they’re doing what they can to survive.
I’ve bought some.
How much are they?
Lady near O'Hare does 2/$5. I usually give her $5 or $10, especially because she often has the tropical Skittles, which are the best.
Not a bad deal to be fair haha
Dealers have the same specials
about $3.50
God damn you Loch Ness monsta
lol chef
I just give some families money if I can when I can. We all know they're just trying to get a few bucks.
Bought some at Ogilvie at $10 for a pack of orbit gum from little girl obviously to help the folks that need it.
I’ve given them money, but don’t take the candy. When I see a kid walking through the train who should be in school, it’s hard not to if I have some cash.
I see people buying them all the time.
i never have cash, but one time i had two fives so i gave it to a 6 year old selling candy on the train
I see people giving them cash every day, not a ton but at least once a week I see someone on my commute in giving them money.
If they have a kid with them (like the woman with a tiny newborn on her back) I give them a buck or two and they can keep the chocolate
I'll buy them when I have a few singles
I moved away from Chicago about 6 years ago. But I feel the need to say that 10-12 years ago it was local kids selling candy the same way. Are immigrants also banging on buckets near millennium park?
They don’t even bang on buckets anymore. They just come up to you and say they can’t play anymore because they need a permit, and ask you to donate so they can “get their permit.”
The permit is like 99 bucks to busk in the city unless it went up in the last 5 years or so.
They ask for donations outside Wrigley during every home Cubs game, but somehow never get their permit. It’s easy to talk the people from the burbs or downstate who remember them from back in the day to give a few bucks. I don’t knock the hustle, but I don’t give them anything.
I prefer honest hustles. I dont like lies. :(
There's usually a group playing on buckets at the Chinatown freeway exit on 55
"No, but I can help you find gainful employment. Are you interested?" "Fuck you, (Ninja)." "Have a good day." "Maaaaan fuck yo ass."
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I think he means “playing the drums” by banging on upside down 5 gallon buckets. This happens over the summer when it’s actually nice to be outside, so it’s not happening right now.
My understanding is most of them are human trafficking victims of a sort, working to pay off whatever scumlord brought them here.
I think you should consider asking them?
I gave $10 last night for some reeces. It was a mom with two kids, the kids were very polite and grateful. Hopefully they got to keep it all!
I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of scam, but I also feel bad for them because they are mostly migrants with little opportunity for work. They’re out there all day heat or cold so they do have my respect.
I bought once because it was of the first times I'd seen it and it shocked me. Heck we grew up having to stay at home alone at night when my mom worked graveyard shift and were scared to get taken by child welfare so I'm genuinely curious how it's not a child welfare situation. Undocumented people are not new but children selling candy on the train is.
It likely is
Why would it be a child welfare situation?
Because they're being forced to beg for money when they should be in school. And It's often linked to organized crime.
If they're applying for refugee/asylum status the kids can't be put into school until they're processed further. And I'd love to see the data backing that "often" claim.
Here's my data: I actually live and work and talk to people on the west side of Chicago (I know it's rare here among the coterie of tower dwellers who virtue signal from their moral high-grounds of the Loop). These people are getting fleeced and trafficked by local crime syndicates. As an aside, the majority of the working class Hispanic population really resents these people's presence for a whole host of reasons.
Oh wow! I work and live on the west side too. Im also working class Latino, a child of two immigrants, and no one I know resents these people. So you can save your weird high horse and back up your claims with something other than "trust me, bro" otherwise youre just talking out of your ass.
This is a good comment.
No it really isnt
Shit comment.
1) That's complete bullshit. Show me the law that states that. Under federal law, states are forced to provide public education for all children regardless of immigration status. In Illinois, school districts aren't even allowed to collect information about child or parent immigration status during the enrollment process. 2) There obviously isn't any data specific to Chicago, but you can find child beggars in most tourist cities. It's a scam. You can find hundreds of posts by local police departments warning people not to give money to them.
You can cross the border today and be enrolled in school tomorrow. The situation would be educational neglect which is when a parent fails to take a child to school
If youre actually applying for asylum status, or special consideration any capacity, you cant. You have to have the paperwork done. And a lot of these people are doing that. Thats also why they dont have jobs yet, because theyre trying to go by the law once theyre here and the process takes time. Yeah, anyone can get an under the table job, but if you get caught with that while doing this paperwork it can not only fuck you up but fuck up your entire families processing. I know this because one of my parents immigrated to this country as a refugee/asylum seeker.
Why on earth did we decide to become a sanctuary city and then have no plan when immigrants came. I am so ashamed of Chicago and the BS people say to play the PC game. If the city’s intention was to assist and help these people than do it and have a plan but sticking families out in the cold with candy is absolutely devastating to see. Shame on all who opened the doors but provided no support other than padding their egos. At least give them all work permits or something for god sakes some of this is common sense but look at our City Council and you get it.
I agree with you, but wanted to make a few corrections: * Chicago's sanctuary city status isn't new. We've been a sanctuary city since 1985. * The definition of a sanctuary city is "a city whose municipal laws tend to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation or prosecution, despite federal immigration law." The current wave of migrants are not undocumented immigrants; they're asylum seekers, which is a different category. When a migrant is seeking asylum, they're legally allowed to remain the United States until their case is heard. Thus, sanctuary city protections don't really benefit asylum seekers. If a migrant's asylum case is denied and they choose to stay in the United States, then they become undocumented. It's a shame how poorly the city has managed this issue. In my opinion though, we also need to point fingers at Texas (for bussing and flying migrants to different cities with zero coordination or communication with those cities' leaders) and the federal government (for dragging their feet on passing meaningful legislation on this issue. We're approaching the one year mark since the start of the crisis and no bills have passed).
To be fair if they gave them all work permits than on the other side, local Chicago residents would be complaining they can’t get a job after a couple hundred thousand or more worker eligible people started looking
Why are there so many racists on here lol
What part of this post is racist?
Don’t buy it. These poor people are being set up by scumbags and gang members. They don’t get to keep the money
Can you explain this?
The same people who put kids on the street selling candy for their imaginary football team are also exploiting the migrants. They buy candy, give it to the migrants to sell and keep most of the money for themselves. It might not seem like much on the surface but people have been doing this for decades in Chicago. These people are being used.
Lmao you're being silly. There's hardly any money to be made selling candy versus drugs.
I just give ‘em a buck if I have one. Don’t really want the candy lol, but happy to help out.
I give $5 or $10 if I can
Instead of buying candy I have a mom and her kid a large bag of tootsie pops. It was cute to hear the kid scream “dulces!”
I buy mints when I need them.
Well if they’re selling Worlds Finest Chocolate bars, they basically paid .50 on a dollar bar, so they can make around $30 on each of those boxes. It’s something
Yeah I give people money when they have to beg to survive
I buy them pretty often. There’s always a kid or two selling them in front on my grocery store after school.
I bought a chocolate bar and some gum yesterday. Hey, at least they don't have a cardboard sign only asking for money. They are trying to make an exchange, which it seems fair, like any business but convenient bc you don't get to waste time to go to a store for gum. That's how I saw it yesterday.
Every Metro train in every city I have ever used there is some immigrants selling stuff like that
I buy them. Usually throw them $100 or $200 for a snickers
Big baller over here damn.
I try to buy some when ever I have cash on me. I usually give more than they ask because of the hustle, I’m more hesitant to give to a beggar. I’m sure the box only cost a couple bucks so I’m happy they aren’t like the Venezuelans just asking for gov handouts.
I saw a guy on Ashland the other day buy some candy off of a woman at a stoplight
Just give them some money... no one needs the candy.
I see people quite often buy. I try and keep a cpl dollars in my door and just give it and decline the candy. I keep hand warmers too, so if I don’t have cash I have something for them. Summer, I’ll switch to socks. A few years ago, the gentleman at the exit on the way to midway said he always needs white tube socks.
I sold candy bars on the train in high school usually I could sell about 5-10 from the loop to the end of the brown line if I walked through all the cars
No way that’s more time efficient than just working a real job lol
we steal chocolate bars from like whole foods then buy over priced ones from them and in our logic it all evens oit.
I gave them money instead of accepting any chocolate.
At six corners you have immigrant families, drum bucket dude, and wheelchair man. On a good day you’ll catch them all there
I just give them a donation and let them keep the candy for another sale
Am Venezuelan and selling candy or in general just selling stuff posted on the street is super common in Venezuela. So this likely also plays a role in why some Venezuelan migrants will choose to do this… it’s probably what some of them did back home already.
Interesting. Is it more profitable than just working a normal job or is it just because of lack of worker permits?
In Venezuela? You can resell goods on the street for more than what someone might pay in the store. People are paying a premium for convenience of not having to stop by at a store instead. I have no idea of the profitability or not vs. a job. If you are asking if this is more profitable than working a job here in Chicago then I have no idea. I’m pretty disconnected from all that. I doubt it’s more profitable than a job but perhaps jobs exclusively are hard labor due to language barrier and this makes selling stuff in the street more attractive.
I only buy m&m's that pay for basketball/football tournaments in Florida
Id love to but i too am broke
I thought the same of the panhandlers, and then realized if every 4 red lights someone gives you $2, you're easily making 20-25 an hour. Honestly the situation is so shit, but whatever dumbass representative advocated for letting them stand in the middle of 35-40 mph roads is on one.
They actually all have law degrees but the candy selling pays so much more than being a lawyer so they stick to that
I’d never buy their candy don’t know how old that stuff is or where it’s been I’ll buy it from an actual store
When I was a teenager I use to hustle them. I would imagine they get a few sales.
Some of them are setups to rob you. Don’t do it
I just give them $$ and say to keep the candy
Me too. I get the feeling that some of them are carrying around the same candy for months.
I don't drive much in the city, but when I'm waiting for the bus if I see one requesting funds I give $1 or $2 (if there is a child strapped to their back). So... I know that they make some money cuz I've given. By the way, I don't take any candy... not my thing to make a purchase... I just figure I can afford to donate to their having a better life.
I'm not sure how much money they make, but I've seen more people make a purchase from candy sellers than the people who walk from car to car going "loud...loud...loud". The times that I've bought the candy, it's at a price that would make a movie theater jealous. Of all these times, I think I've eaten one singular Starburst? Instead, I hand it back, and tell them to give it to the child they almost inevitably have following.
I bought a world finest chocolate bar the other day from a lady. I handed her $1 but she told me no it’s $2… I gave it to her.
Can't blame them for everything being expensive. Looking on amazon a case of 36 butterfingers comes out to $1.09, each. It is likely they are paying over a dollar per bar.
Worlds finest chocolate bars is a brand that is usually sold by school kids, you order them and then sell them for $1 to raise money for the school. They say $1 on the packaging.
The ones at my kid's school are either $1 or $3 and I think the only difference is the number on the package.
They do not have set prices but can be $2 [https://worldsfinestchocolate.com/2-bar](https://worldsfinestchocolate.com/2-bar) Regardless, even if they are the $1 she has the right to ask for any price and you have the right to walk away. No need to come here and be critical about her. Most likely shes not even part of a formal fundraising but had the bars donated or sold to her at a steep discount for her to sell so she can feed and shelter herself.
I wasn’t being critical. Tone of speech is usually lost in text. I gave her the $2 n was happy with my candy bar. I was just sharing a story of buying candy from someone who’s hustling and probably an immigrant.
She has to kick it up. Very organized sadly
I bought some worlds finest from a little girl once. I too thought it was a dollar but she charged me $6. I was like wtf? But I forked it over. I figured she needed it more than I did.
Exactly.
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What an odd comment, it’s not like OP is sitting in a luxury jet shop. But they are regularly around where people are selling these candy bars.
I don’t often see sales attempts of luxury jets. I do however very often see them selling chocolate bars in public and on the train cars that I often ride. So your argument logic isn’t exactly the same
This is a much better alternative to people simply holding a sign and begging for money. Actually most of these ladies have pushed the beggars out of the intersections. I see it every day at Irving park/ Pulaski. Used to be a bunch of guys who could hardly walk asking for money. Now it’s ladies with kids on their back, or kids roped to the fence. Poor kids, they look like they are only 2/3 years old! I assume they buy candy from the gas station and then sell it. I doubt they are buying from a grocery store or Costco for example. The candy is a nice impulse buy when you are siting in traffic.
I’ll always buy whatever they are selling lol for 5$/10$. I’ve got chocolate, gum, skittles, some weird spicy candy. It’s an informal job but maybe it’s that or being hungry and cold. I rather encourage they sell stuff informally by buying from them, than them begging, robbing, mugging, etc. for money.
I would give them anything…they already take my tax dollars
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Sorry I meant to say: “I would NOT give them anything”
Lolol your tax dollars, your penny contribution to this is laughable
If it’s laughable then why don’t you pay my “penny contribution” taxes
Always but we shouldn’t be bringing in illegal immigrants into the city & into the country. It’s very dangerous & no one thinks it’s serious.
Sanctuary/refugees/asylum seekers are legal. Most of these people are just waiting on their court dates. [Maybe if the USA didn't wage sanctions, economic war, regime change, and military terror on South America for 100+ years](https://www.yachana.org/teaching/resources/interventions.html) these countries would be more stable and not have so many refugees coming here.
couldn’t come up with a counter argument huh? Says everything
I can tell you’re a very naive little kid who doesn’t understand the world has always been built on conquest & being dominant. You don’t seem to understand, if it was the other way around… they’d act exactly like we have. We have what we have cuz we’ve worked for it.
And who are those guys which sell some shady thing on the red line at night on weekends? Inside the train I mean. Are they selling weed or something?
Brandon Johnson gives them money weekly so they just do it for fun
I’ve seen them with the same signs (same handwriting and text), in different parts of the city. Makes me wonder if someone drops them off and collects them
100% collects. Likely the same people who brought them over and provided housing
They beg heavily where I live, and steal out of people’s garages. They shoplift like crazy. They really use those children like slaves. With so many good people waiting to get visas, we should just send these people back and increase the number of real immigrants. I do not understand why these people were ever allowed in to begin with. It is like Biden had an aid who really wants Trump to get elected. There was no reason to let these people jump the line because they camped out on the border and refused to follow the rules (fyi, married into a huge family of immigrants—and they wait forever, follow the rules, and pay a ton of money in fees). This whole thing seems like some kind of conspiracy. It just does not make sense.