Illinois Senate President Don Harmon said Sunday that the state needed to “create a more durable social infrastructure” so that when a crisis hits, like the humanitarian one the busing of migrants created, officials can respond properly and quickly.
“We need to do a better job of using these opportunities to create a more durable social infrastructure, so that we are prepared to handle the next crisis that comes around the corner, because once this one is addressed, another will inevitably come,” Harmon, of the 39th district, said.
His remarks came as part of Sunday’s annual Rev. Donald H. Wheat Lecture at the Third Unitarian Church on North Mayfield Avenue where about 80 people attended in person or by videoconference. Harmon, who has served as president since 2020, was invited to speak about progressive issues congregants are interested in as part of the lecture series.
Harmon said the biggest test the state faces is managing the arrival of migrants who are refuge in the United States.
“We cannot turn away from them,” Harmon said. “We see them in the community, in Columbus Park, at the police station. We see the people selling candy on the corner every time we drive through the neighborhood.”
He said their arrival has triggered the same kind of divide within the society that was seen 20 years ago when debating the Human Rights Amendment, which granted equal rights to LGBTQ+ people.
He also acknowledged the friction some communities, including those on the West Side have expressed, over feeling ignored in light of the rapid assistance for the asylum seekers.
“For generations, government has told [citizens] we don’t have the money to address mental health, the unhoused and food insecurity in our communities,” he said. “But now, all of a sudden, we have the resources to deal with people arriving from a different country?”
Such concerns should be added to the public discussions he said, and they “should be an added perspective to the debate, not an excuse for turning our backs on people.”
He also said that if the state funding temporary housing for migrants from Central and South America — like it should — it also needed to make sure it has resources to support the unhoused neighbors when they are in need.
Harmon reminded the audience that the state does not get to choose what challenge comes next and the migrant crisis, because just like COVID-19, they often fall into the state’s lap.
“Bemoaning the circumstances doesn’t solve the problem,” he said. “We need to use this as an inflection point to examine the fundamental inequities in our society and how to address them, for everyone.”
Harmon also remarked on how the criminal justice system changed since he’s been in office.
Lawmakers would come to Springfield and would win political points by taking existing crimes and making sentences longer.
But now the approach to crime has changed, and Harmon said he was all for it. As part of that change, he sponsored the second chance probation law that gave younger people the ability to have parole which they could not have before and a chance to turn their life around.
Another part of the new view on the crime system is the successful abolishment of the cash bail system this year.
Harmon said that it was never meant to be part of a local fundraiser and if funding for the jail is low there are specific government systems that are meant for this situation.
“People, who I will remind you are legally considered innocent until proven guilty, will forfeit their freedom based on their threat to society and individuals,” he said. “They will not forfeit their freedom because they lack the cash to buy it.”
He is also fighting for gun control and is the sponsor of the state’s gun dealer licensing law.
“It took me 16 years of trying and failing before I got that to the governor’s desk, and even then it was vetoed by Governor Rauner,” Harmon said.
In the most recent Harmon sponsored the successful effort to pass and enact an assault weapons ban that is taking effect now.
Anyone who owned an assault weapon, a high-capacity magazine, or an assault weapon attachment before the law took effect must register them with the Illinois State Police by Jan. 1, 2024.
The law also prohibits the sale, manufacture, purchase, or transfer of any new assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, or assault weapon attachments in Illinois.
“Yes, more needs to be done to protect our children and our communities,” Harmon said. “But I bring up these hard-fought, long-term accomplishments to show that change is happening – you just have to keep at it.”
Harmon was elected as the senate president in 2020 and represented the Senate’s 39th District, Oak Park, since 2003.