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Ahead of the general elections, the Sikh Religious Society of Palatine, a Chicago suburban Sikh Gurdwara, organized a community gathering focused more on politics rather than religion Oct. 26.
The society hosted and co-sponsored a suburban candidates Town Hall, a non-partisan candidates’ forum for the 8th U.S. Congressional District, to address immigrant issues in the Chicago suburbs.
The 8th District Congressional candidates Raja Krishnamoorthi (D) and Pete Dicianni (R) were invited to face the community and state their campaign positions on the issues important to the immigrant communities, although it was only Krishnamoorthi who turned up.
“When the candidates on television or radio are discussing immigration issues, they are talking about our communities and our lives. This is why these face-to-face town hall meetings are so important for us,” said Rajinder Singh Mago, public and media relations coordinator for the Sikh Religious Society who moderated the forum.
The forum was attended by more than 100 people despite a historic World Series Baseball game between Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians on that day.
The immigrant population in the west and northwest suburbs of Chicago is on the rise, with new immigrants often bypassing cities and settling directly in the suburbs.
The non-partisan forum to understand the candidates policies and positions was sponsored by Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Chicago, Centro de Informacion, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Northern Alliance For Immigrants, South Asian American Policy and Research Institute, and the Sikh Religious Society.
The forum co-sponsoring organizations were coordinated by Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Chicago, and Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
“For Sikhs, equality, social justice, and protecting the unprotected are part of our faith,” Mago said.
According to Mago, there are over 1.8 million immigrants, including over 500,000 undocumented immigrants, 275,000 of which are in Cook and the collar counties like Du Page, Lake, Kane and others. Undocumented immigrants in Illinois paid more than 700,000,000 in taxes in 2015.
He said that the process of planning the non-partisan town hall series began with a coalition of non-profit, non-partisan immigrant and refugee-serving organizations, who wanted to engage both parties’ candidates on issues that are important to their communities in suburbs.
Immigrant and refugee leaders from Asian American and Latino communities asked the candidates critical questions related to immigration reform, healthcare, the economy, voting rights, women’s rights, Gun violence and many more.
Since Decianni did not appear at the forum, all the questions were directed to and answered by Krishnamoorthi.
Tejas Shah representing SAAPRI, asked Krishnamoorthi about H1-B Employment visas while Jasvir Kaur Singh of Sikh community asked Krishnamoorthi about hate crimes> Questions from other community members related health coverage for the undocumented and the uninsured, rising cost of university education, student debt relief and gun violence and gun control issue.
The final question was if Krishnamoorthi won the election, would he meet with the group again after he has been in the office 100 days. Krishnamoorthi’s answer was in the affirmative.
The event ended with conversations among participants on forming new alliances for common issues, and breaking bread together while partaking langar (community kitchen meal).
Some of the guests, who had never been to a gurdwara before, observed the Sikh worship service in the congregation hall.
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