Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García

U.S. Representative Jesús G. “Chuy” García proudly represents the Fourth Congressional District of Illinois. Throughout his career, Congressman García has been a progressive voice, both as an organizer and as a legislator, fighting to improve the lives of his working-class neighbors, many of whom are immigrants like him. He is a coalition builder committed to expanding access to quality education, affordable housing, and economic opportunity.

He currently serves as a member of the influential Financial Services Committee, Natural Resources Committee, and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), the Congressional Equality Caucus, Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, and New Americans Caucus. He is also the founder the Future of Transportation Caucus.

He previously served as Cook County Commissioner, where he spearheaded a ban on discriminatory practices involving landlords limiting lease opportunities people who rely on housing choice vouchers.

Congressman García also served in the Illinois Senate from 1993 to 1999, where he passed legislation to protect immigrants against abusive fees from notary publics and legislation to make interpreters available to hospital patients with limited English language abilities.

From 1986 to 1993 he was a member of the Chicago City Council, where he passed an ordinance to help immigrants complete green card applications.

Congressman García was born in Los Pinos, a small village in the Mexican state of Durango. He came to the United States with his family 1965 with permanent resident status, to join his father who worked in the fields during the bracero program and later in a cold storage plant in Chicago. He still remembers his first American meal: a bologna sandwich from a roadside diner in Texas.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in urban planning from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Congressman García and his wife Evelyn live in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. They have three adult children and six grandchildren.