CHICAGO — A Chicago officer is using his time-off to help migrants.

The officer’s love of books led him to begin a literacy effort for the migrant children living at his police station.

Officer Jesus Magallon began his mission to hand out books to the children, newly arrived in Chicago over the summer. 

He saw the children of those newly arrived migrants and noticed they didn’t have any books. He set out to change that.

On the force since 2018, Magallon started his career as a public school teacher and is now a PhD candidate at DePaul.

Education and reading are very important to him. 

“That’s the beauty and the power of books … having access to that, you can learn anything and that is a very powerful concept,” he said.

He has given away hundreds so far. Many of them came from Bernie’s Book Bank on the North Shore. 

Magallon believes that one book can make a difference for young minds.

“You can find something that interests you, that you have a passion about and you ride that and you take it from there,” he said. “I really just want to keep this focused on the books and an education for youth, because there’s so much good things I can happen from there.”

Megallon is still looking for donations of books and hopes the program expense to other areas of the city. You can get in contact with him at the 25th Police District