Cesar Espinoza, second from left, a former firefighter from Venezuela, shakes hands with Chicago businessman Sam Sparks, center, near the former Wadsworth Elementary School building in Chicago on May 19, 2023.
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Cesar Espinoza, second from left, a former firefighter from Venezuela, shakes hands with Chicago businessman Sam Sparks, center, near the former Wadsworth Elementary School building in Chicago on May 19, 2023. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

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As migrants move into shelters, surrounding communities respond: ‘They have value’

As migrants move into shelters, surrounding communities respond: ‘They have value’

CHICAGO -- On a recent sunny afternoon in Chicago's Woodlawn area, more than a dozen men from Venezuela gathered in a parking lot outside a shuttered elementary school that is now a shelter for migrants, kicking a soccer ball and blaring music from cars. Jeisson Gutierrez Rojas, 27, sat on a bench and scrolled through his phone. Wearing a bucket hat and black blazer, he said he fled his home ...