I stuffed in internet hosting a morning radio present in Springfield final week and I used to be shocked and dismayed that caller after caller appeared to deal with people who find themselves in search of asylum within the U.S. as one thing lower than human.
Let’s clear up a few issues. When somebody crosses the border illegally, whether or not sneaking throughout the Rio Grande or hiding within the trunk of a automotive, they’re breaking the legislation. They need to be arrested, punished and they need to be deported.
The lots of of people that the Texas governor has shipped to Chicago should not right here illegally. They’ve fled locations similar to socialist Venezuela, are working from drug cartels in Mexico, or are fleeing central American nations similar to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to keep away from a lifetime of squalor and violence. They’ve all (so far as I’ve been informed) utilized for asylum in the USA. It’s a authorized course of that’s akin to coming to our entrance door, knocking, and asking for our assist.
It’s over 1,500 miles from El Salvador to the border crossing at McAllen, Texas. A few of the migrants are making that trek on foot. They’re determined for assist. Sure, we have to safe the border, we have to have extra border brokers, and we have to cease individuals from stepping into the nation illegally. All ought to agree on that.
Advertisement
Immigrants are the material of our state and nation. My ancestors fled Germany in 1868 forward of the Franco-Prussian Battle and wound up on a chunk of land in central Illinois. There was important Irish inhabitants development in Chicago in the course of the Nice Famine of the 1830s. Hundreds of Scandinavian immigrants got here to Illinois within the 1850s. Should you’re studying this, there’s a very good probability you got here from a kind of teams.
Whereas the Texas governor has unceremoniously loaded these authorized migrants on busses and shipped them to Chicago, we should always welcome them to Illinois with open arms. Upon arrival, a few of the migrants have been despatched to accommodations and shelters within the suburbs. That, after all, has set off some NIMBY mayors and isolationists that don’t like the very fact these brown of us have proven up of their city.
Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso, who ran and misplaced a major for Congress as a Republican in June, complained the village didn’t get sufficient discover the migrants have been being taken to a resort in his neighborhood, however within the course of, didn’t sound significantly welcoming.
“Our legal guidelines are based mostly on due course of, on discover – on a proper to talk up earlier than one thing occurs to you. We have been utterly blindsided and the concept that neither the town nor the state thought to name the mayor or the administrator of our village to me is sort of intentional to only do that to us,” Grasso mentioned just lately.
The canine whistle is robust in that assertion. Whereas the Pritzker administration and charities who present companies to those migrants are scrambling, they’re extra centered on discovering beds for individuals to sleep in than they’re notifying residents of a tony suburb {that a} native resort can have some company for a number of nights.
Advertisement
The native communities aren’t requested to supply any companies or present any reduction to the migrants. Some will finally be positioned in colleges, I’m certain, and use hospitals and sources once they discover a extra everlasting place to stay, however that isn’t straight away.
These aren’t the “drug sellers and rapists” Donald Trump alleged immigrants to be in 2015. They’re households and senior residents and infants who’re desperately looking for a brand new life. They’ve traveled hundreds of miles as a result of they want our assist. Whether or not in Lemont, LaSalle or Laredo, they’ve each proper to be right here.
The place would you be if America hadn’t welcomed your ancestors?
Don’t these migrants deserve the identical probability?
• Patrick Pfingsten is a former journalist and Republican strategist who writes The Illinoize statewide political e-newsletter. Learn extra at www.theillinoize.com or contact him at patrick@theillinoize.com.
If you’re an Illini fan today, you’re probably somewhere putting your feet up, basking in the glow of an epic come-from-behind football win and an iron-fisted basketball beatdown, and patting yourself on the back for a hard day’s work rooting on your favorite nationally ranked programs. Oh, and you’re undoubtedly asking yourself a question:
Who in the world is Ed Cooley?
Unless you’re a die-hard college basketball fan, you can be forgiven for scratching your head over the name. Cooley, the current coach of the Georgetown Hoyas and previously a longtime head man at Providence and Fairfield, doesn’t do a lot of business in the Midwest, or anywhere else – like, say, the NCAA Tournament – where you might have seen him often.
More to the point, what does Cooley have to do with the Illini? It’s a fair question – one that a lot of observers were asking in the wake of his postgame press conference after his Hoyas’ 82-65 win over Saint Francis on Saturday.
Advertisement
Ostensibly, the subject of conversation was Hoyas guard Jayden Epps and his glowing defensive performance against the Red Flash, but it was the Illini (and, by implication, coach Brad Underwood and his staff) who wound up catching strays from 700 miles away.
You may remember that Epps – a top high school prospect out of Norfolk, Virginia, a few years back – signed with Illinois and played his freshman season in Champaign. Had a pretty good year, too: averages of 9.5 points and 1.5 assists in 31 games, including 11 starts. But Epps bounced out of Illinois through the transfer portal – and wasn’t the first or last in the Underwood era – and landed at Georgetown.
Perhaps Cooley felt Epps was underappreciated in Champaign and thought he was defending his guy. Maybe he even thought he had been mistreated. But the message wasn’t a response or reaction – it was delivered unprompted, without further context or explanation. it was a calculated shot wrapped in an offhanded remark inside a monumentally dumb decision. Neither Cooley nor Epps gained anything from the comment. It just came off as sour grapes.
Advertisement
Cooley must have recognized as much – or been instructed by an administrator that he had better – because he quickly apologized for the indiscretion. Sort of:
“My comment today was said in jest with one of my players, but I admit it was a poor choice of words,” Cooley posted on his X social media account. “I have the utmost respect for the University of Illinois, its men’s basketball program, coaches and players.”
For his part, Underwood blew off the beef when asked about Cooley’s comments in the postgame presser following Illinois’ 87-40 shellacking of Maryland Eastern Shore.
“My guys told me about it,” Underwood said. “That’s not even worth wasting my time on. I don’t know what he’s referencing that about. Jayden had a productive freshman year here. But I’m not getting into all that. I’ll let our fans have some fun with that, which I’m sure they probably are. But I’ve got Arkansas Little Rock to worry about and Arkansas to worry about and Northwestern to worry about and everybody else to worry about. I mean, I don’t read [the media’s] stuff, I’m sure as heck not gonna read his.”
Illini fans will surely have less tolerance and longer memories for this sort of thing than Underwood himself, so of course we’re rooting for an Illinois-Georgetown NCAA Tournament matchup. Because what’s March Madness without a little extra chaos?
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Will Riley scored his 19 points in the second half and No. 25 Illinois beat Maryland Eastern Shore 87-40 on Saturday.
Kylan Boswell added 13 points, Tomislav Ivisic had 11 and Morez Johnson Jr. finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Illini (4-1), who shot 25% (10 for 40) from 3-point range but committed just nine turnovers.
Advertisement
Tre White grabbed 11 rebounds and Kasparas Jakucionis seven for Illinois, which outrebounded the Hawks 59-38.
Jalen Ware scored 10 points and Christopher Flippin had 10 rebounds for Maryland Eastern Shore (2-6), which had its lowest point total of the season. The team’s previous low came in 102-63 loss to Vanderbilt on Nov. 4.
Illinois is unbeaten in four home games. Maryland Eastern Shore is winless in six road games.
Takeaways
Illinois: Coming off a 100-87 loss Wednesday to No. 8 Alabama, the Illini had no trouble dominating the overmatched Hawks. They led 35-15 at halftime and extended the lead to as many as 52 points in the second half.
Maryland Eastern Shore: The Hawks couldn’t match Illinois’ height and depth and were slowed by 15 turnovers.
Advertisement
Key moment
After struggling at the start of the game, the Illini went on a 17-0 run over a seven-minute stretch to move in front 25-8 with 5:15 to go in the first half.
Key stat
Maryland Eastern Shore struggled from the field, shooting 22% (15 for 68), including 5 for 20 on 3-pointers.
Up next
Illinois hosts Little Rock on Monday. Maryland Eastern Shore plays at No. 20 Arkansas on Monday.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
The women’s Illinois basketball team continued to impress on Friday night with another big win.
Coming into the game, the Illini were 4-0 and had already beaten a top-25 program in Florida State and a good team in Marquette. We were on top of the world.
It would be understandable for a letdown game to happen. Illinois didn’t let it happen, though. We came out of the gates firing, and Oregon State didn’t have answers.
Illinois played well in both halves. We took a 10-point lead into the halftime locker room and quickly expanded on that lead in the third quarter. By the game’s end, Illinois managed to secure an 85-66 win over Oregon State.
Advertisement
Coming into the game on Friday night, Illinois has been able to hold their own when it comes to the rebounding department. But this wasn’t an easy matchup, as Oregon State is a good rebounding team as well.
Despite Oregon State having some great size, the Illini were tough on the boards. We were able to pull down rebounds at a rate that I was impressed with considering the opposing team had a 6-foot-7 center starting.
Illinois finished the game pulling down 36 rebounds compared to Oregon State’s 34 rebounds. Five of the 36 rebounds were on the offensive glass too, but we didn’t have a ton of opportunities considering the team shot 54.7% from the field.
The thing that impressed me the most about Illinois’ rebounding ability on Friday night was the size differential. Oregon State trotted out a 6-foot-7 center and a 6-foot-5 forward. We limited those two players to just 12 rebounds in 42 minutes of game action.
I think a big part of the great rebounding effort on the part of Illinois is the fact our frontcourt is strong and athletic. It is hard to move Kendall Bostic off her spot, and she does a great job boxing out. The same can be said for Brynn Shoup-Hill. Both players were quicker than anything Oregon State had in the frontcourt too.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/WNCTDQTXCJACNAMFPZFBPZYNRQ.png "Migrants sent to Illinois deserve a chance")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25749796/installer_61.png "Two new tech documentaries you really need to see")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25739950/247386_Elon_Musk_Open_AI_CVirginia.jpg "Inside Elon Musk’s messy breakup with OpenAI")
