Demmer among lawmakers calling for action on Ukraine

Suburban politicians who represent Ukrainian American constituents say they expect to get many more calls for help in the coming days and weeks amid the growing humanitarian crisis involving loved ones fleeing their homeland.

“I am very concerned about what is now happening between Russia and Ukraine. The toll this invasion will take on Ukranians across the world will be harsh and unimaginable,” said state Rep. Deb Conroy, a Villa Park Democrat, whose West suburban district is home to a small population of Ukrainian immigrants and the St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Bloomingdale.

Conroy said she’s working with U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi to help a resident expedite the adoption of a girl currently living in Ukraine.

“We anticipate receiving many more requests in the coming days and weeks for assistance during this crisis, and we are committed to working with our partners to do everything we can to help,” she said.

On Thursday, the morning after the Russian invasion had begun, downstate Rep. Tom Demmer filed legislation to increase the Illinois Department of Human Services budget by $40 million through June 2023 to aid in the resettlement of Ukrainian refugees.

The Dixon Republican called the legislation a “concrete step” to support and stand with the people of Ukraine.

“In this dark and dangerous moment, it is crucial that we stand strongly and unequivocally with the people of Ukraine and offer every tool at our disposal to provide aid to refugees who flee from the invasion of their sovereign nation,” Demmer said in a news release. “As a nation founded by refugees, there is no American value more enduring or essential than welcoming refugees from war-torn places all across the world and helping them and their families resettle safely.”

Since 1975, Illinois’ refugee resettlement program, run by the human services department, has helped resettle 123,644 refugees from more than 60 countries.

State Rep. Tom Morrison said he hasn’t received any requests for constituent services, but he was happy to offer a few words of support and prayer at a vigil Thursday night at Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church of Palatine. The Palatine Republican said he’s gotten to know members of the church and community center in recent years.

“I read a few Bible verses to encourage them and tell them we’re praying for them,” Morrison said. “I said we stand united against the aggression of Vladimir Putin and that we stand with those who are fighting back against this evil aggression.”

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, more than 50,000 people of Ukrainian ancestry live in the Chicago area. Some are still in the traditional -- yet now gentrified -- Chicago neighborhood of Ukrainian Village, but many others are in enclaves throughout the suburbs, including Bloomingdale, Palatine, Schaumburg, Buffalo Grove and towns near Cumberland Avenue and the towering St. Joseph the Betrothed Ukrainian Catholic Church on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

Officials at the Ukrainian National Museum, a cultural center in Ukrainian Village, noted there have been four mass immigrations from Ukraine to the United States: between 1870 and 1914, between the end of World War I and start of World War II when Ukraine was an independent nation, after the end of the second war, and in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union.