'Sanctuary city' Chicago to impound migrant buses, redirect migrants elsewhere | Just The News
By: Andrew Hensel (Just The News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Mayor Brandon Johnson is looking to slow the influx of migrants in the city of Chicago by impounding incoming buses that do not receive a permit from the Chicago Department of Transportation and by looking throughout the state for places to redirect the new arrivals.
About 24,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago over the last 16 months, leading the state to spend over $500 million on migrants this year alone.
A city ordinance that passed on Wednesday allows for Johnson to impound and tow buses that don't deliver asylum seekers to designated "landing zones." Johnson said the ordinance is in response to actions at the U.S. southern border.
"It was passed today, mainly because we have a real irresponsible, inhumane practice that is coming from the border," Johnson said. "What I have said from the very beginning is we have to create some structure, some order, some calm to this crisis, and my leadership has done just that."
The first bus to be impounded happened just hours after the ordinance was passed by the city council.
The migrant issue has been ongoing, as Johnson in September said they will not be able to keep taking care of the migrants without significant help from the federal government.
"Let me state this clearly, the city of Chicago can not go on welcoming new arrivals safely and capably without significant support and immigration policy changes," Johnson said.
With continued controversy over how taxpayer resources are being spent on the crisis, including nearly $1 million on the Brighton Park migrant basecamp tent that was scrapped over environmental concerns and expensive housing contracts, the mayor said his administration is busy.
"I don't know if there is another administration that is working as hard as the people in this administration," Johnson said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been criticized by Johnson and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for his handling of the migrant situation. Abbott posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he has sent migrants to Chicago to help "overwhelmed" border cities. Despite Chicago's sanctuary city status, Johnson is now seeking to do something similar.
"We are searching for property all over the state of Illinois because this is a crisis and it will not go away because people are upset," Johnson said. "This inhumane treatment further endangers the safety and security of asylum seekers and adds additional strain to city departments, volunteers, and mutual aid partners tasked with easing what is already a harsh transition."
Chicago Alderman Chris Taliaferro told The Center Square that people are "upset" due to the city refusing to end its status as a sanctuary city.
"My constituents are very concerned about whether or not we remain a sanctuary city and having that opportunity put before them on a ballot," Taliaferro said. "A lot of our residents, particularly those in the Black community, want to be heard as to whether or not we remain a sanctuary city."
Previous reporting from The Center Square revealed that several municipalities in Illinois do not want the migrants sent to them.
On Wednesday, the Village of Oak Park's Emergency Operations Center sent a memo to the village manager saying it no longer has space for asylum seekers.
"The Village does not have the capacity to accept additional new arrivals," the memo stated.
This is not the first time Johnson has floated the idea of sending the arrivals somewhere else, and it is not the first time he has received pushback from other towns' officials.
In August, Johnson said he was looking at other Cook County towns to send the migrants, including Orland Park.
Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau said they can not support that idea.
"None of us have the resources for this. We do not have health departments. We do not have that kind of stuff," Pekau said. "They have called us a sanctuary state, right? Here's the deal, at the state level, the state has been ripping all the municipalities off by the Local Government Distributive Fund since prior to [Gov. J.B.] Pritzker."
The LGDF is local governments' share of Illinois income tax money the state collects that is supposed to be distributed to local government but the state has not fully shared the required amount year after year.
Illinois state government has already spent over half a billion dollars to care for the noncitizen arrivals, Pritzker said, with the prospect of a supplemental appropriation to be considered by state legislators when they return mid-January.
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If I remember correctly, Mayor Dumbasses constituents made it clear that they do not want illegals being brought into the city. Now, we all know they are arriving in support of Chicago's Sanctuary City status / declaration that welcomes illegals.
And didn't this POS mayor recently deny Chicagoans the right to vote on continuing with sanctuary city status?
You are correct. The city council did just that
So Mayor Dumbass is full of shit in his claim.
I'm going to recommend to Gov Abbott that his bus drivers set their GPS for those "landing zones."
These liberally run cities are fighting a losing battle over this issue. The border states and cities simply don't have the financial or human resources to handle this influx of illegals. More and more Democrat mayors and governors are fed up and taking action.
Governor Katie Hobbs Signs Executive Order Sending Arizona National Guard to Border Communities | Office of the Arizona Governor (azgovernor.gov)
Just perfect. Progressives like Johnson support open borders, so long as others bear the cost and they can preen and pose as social justice champions to other progressives.
Well, it'd be different if these illegal immigrants were forced to travel to Chicago. But that's not what's happening. The illegal immigrants don't want to stay at the border and they want to travel to Chicago. Wouldn't it be inhumane to force these illegal immigrants to stay at the border? Isn't that the argument for opposing a 'remain in Mexico' policy?
Seems like busing illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities only gives the illegal immigrants what they want. Don't blame governors and cities along the southern border for accommodating illegal immigrants. After all, accommodating illegal immigrants is the core of Democrats' reforms for immigration policy.
Why not. Chicago is a Sanctuary City that welcomes illegals.
It's what the illegals want. It's what the Democrats want when they declared their cities and states as Sanctuary shitholes. Yet, here we are having to listen to the Democrats whining and complaining about it daily.
Maybe that's because Democrats are NIMBY liberals. The only aspect of illegal immigration that liberals care about is scoring political points. Liberals have only been exploiting illegal immigrants for political purposes.
What we've seen is that these sanctuary cities cannot even provide sanctuary for their own citizens. It's all been blue smoke.
They have not just been exploiting illegals. The exploit other minority groups, the homeless, the unemployed, gays , tranies and anyone else they think they can use for their own purposes and get away with ignoring when they don't need them any longer.