Jun 17

Jun 17 World Refugee Day

Chicago, Demonstrations, Donald J. Trump, Performance, Public Declarations

Sunday, I returned from a five-day whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C., where I spent three days with members of the Ukrainian diaspora lobbying Congress, followed by two days spent covering Donald J. Trump’s 79th birthday celebration under the guise of a parade honoring the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday. After unpacking, I started a marathon photo editing session, which also included preparing two additional reviews of the 2025 Blues Festival.

Waking up exhausted today, I still had four more posts to prepare. But in Chicago, today’s World Refugee Day. Reluctantly, I headed down to Daley Plaza for the noon festivities. Given the Trump Presidency and Trump’s vicious immigration policies, celebrating World Refugee Day is particularly important this year. To counteract Trump’s propaganda, as a country we need recognize the important role refugees have played in our civic life.

It is worth noting that one of Trump’s executive orders ended the U.S. Refugee Program. Under the program, the Federal government partnered with nonprofit organizations throughout the country to identify and vet qualified refugees for admission to the United States. The process provided a road to permanent residency, and then citizenship. Trump called the program, ”detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

Take the 35,000 refugees from Putin’s war against Ukraine who now reside in Chicago. Contrary to Trump’s view that refugees are nothing but a burden on the public fisc, many of the Ukrainians who fled Ukraine for Chicago have purchased homes, started businesses, regularly pay their bills, and have placed their children in public schools, where the the kids are thriving.

Make America Great Again? Really? The people from all over the world who flee to our shores confirm that America is already great. They still view the USA as a beacon of freedom and opportunity. Ironically, Trump has become the one impediment to our greatness, tearing down what took 250 years to build.

Based totally on my recollections about the 2024 World Refugee Day ceremony, I thought attendance was way down this year, which makes sense. The Trump Administration’s heavy-handed enforcement policies have resulted in fear among the immigrant community. Some communities are unable to hold demonstrations anymore because their members are afraid to come out of the shadows that Donald J. Trump has forced then into. Many probably feared that ICE agents would be mix in with the Daley Plaza celebrants.

Despite my feelings about the importance of World Refugee Day, I arrived at Daley Plaza fatigued. One of my cameras crapped out on me, which just exacerbated my fatigue. I listened to three or four speeches. Mayor Brandon Johnson gave the best speech I have ever heard him deliver. He focused on the importance of refugees, and nothing else. Johnson put his inflections in all the right spots.

Despite the Mayor’s stirring words, I threw in the towel. I was tired and hungry. I needed some downtime. My limited photographs from the event were heavily influenced by one of the television cameramen who was present. We were talking before the ceremony. As Mayor Johnson crossed the street, the cameraman said to me, “Good, most of our video of him shows him standing behind a podium. Time to get some good footage.” I agreed with him.

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It. The Images Are Not Necessarily in Exact Chronological Order]