* Block Club Chicago…
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is creating a “humanitarian crisis” as his state prepares to resume bussing migrants to Chicago — when the city already doesn’t have room for them.
Lightfoot sent a letter Sunday to Abbott, saying Chicago officials learned he will resume bussing migrants Monday and calling it a “inhumane and dangerous action” as the city has already reached a “critical tipping point” in its ability to help people. […]
Lightfoot said Abbott is attempting to “cause chaos and score political points” by bussing people to Democrat-led cities in protest of federal immigration policies.
The mayor called upon the federal government to freeze all emergency funding to Texas if it resumes buses to Chicago.
“We simply have no more shelters, spaces or resources to accommodate an increase of individuals at this level, with little coordination or care, that does not pose a risk to them or others,” Lightfoot said in the letter. “To tell them to go to Chicago or to inhumanely bus them here is an inviable and misleading choice.”
It is inhumane. But you can’t on the one hand hold your city (and state) out as a welcoming place for immigrants and on the other hand say “We didn’t mean that many all of a sudden!”
They’re just gonna have to deal with it somehow.
* During the mayoral campaign, Chicago police were sent to O’Hare to sweep out homeless people. But then came last week…
About 40 migrants, mostly young women and children, wrapped themselves in blankets and tried to sleep Wednesday morning outside a homelessness center inside O’Hare Airport.
The Venezuelan migrants said they crossed the border into Texas and were offered free flights to Chicago while staying at a shelter in San Antonio. They’re just dozens of the thousands of migrants sent here from Texas since last summer. […]
Upon arriving at O’Hare, the migrants were first directed to Haymarket Center’s O’Hare homelessness outreach program, a nonprofit with an office by the airport’s Blue Line. A Haymarket spokesperson said in recent days they’ve been dealing with a “unique and developing situation,” are unprepared to handle asylum seekers and “doing what they can” to connect them to appropriate social service groups.
The Haymarket Center helps folks deal with substance abuse issues. The group is simply not equipped for this particular task. And it’s taking their staff away from the invaluable services they provide to some of the city’s most vulnerable people.
* And the police aren’t equipped for it, either…
There has been a tenfold increase over the past 10 days in daily arrivals of migrants, said Brandie Knazze, commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services. Migrants — often families with children — are now sheltering in police station lobbies across the city. […]
The city has established 20 shelters since the 108 buses were sent from Texas, Doughtie said. Twelve of them have closed, leaving just eight, he said. […]
But none of this work can be done without appropriate funds at the state and federal levels, said Chicago budget director Susie Park. The total anticipated cost for January through June is $124.8 million, which includes planning for the current surge to reach a peak of 4,700 new arrivals per day, Park said.
Leveraging state and city funding and anticipated funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency still leaves a shortfall of about $53 million to meet needs through June 30 alone, she said.
* Yet, when politicians want the federal government to pay for security at and around their quadrennial party conventions, they act fast to protect the host cities from fiscal pressures…
The city of Chicago is obliged to provide “at no cost” to the Democratic National Convention Committee “police, fire, security, bomb disposal, emergency and rescue service and all other goods or services related to security” according to the contract, obtained by the Sun-Times. […]
The Democratic and Republican presidential conventions are each routinely designated as a National Special Security Event. That opens the door to substantial federal funding. Presidential inaugurations have the same designation, as did the 2012 NATO Summit in Chicago.
Since 2004, host cities receive $50 million in federal funds to help pay security costs. Congress is being asked to boost this to $75 million each for Chicago and Milwaukee.
Quigley, D-Ill., is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Illinois lead in asking Congress for more cash. In a letter to House and Senate appropriations leaders, he wrote that “the City of Chicago anticipates the current federal funding of $50 million will not be adequate” for the 2024 convention, “due to inflation, potential supply chain issues, increased public safety personnel and equipment needs and increased insurance costs because of potential security threats.” […]
The contract outlines some of the special security needs: for police escorts to deliver credentials to state delegations and media at their hotels and lots of extra security at convention hotels and convention offices and all kinds of screening equipment for weapons and bombs at convention venues.
They’re gonna use cops to deliver delegate credentials? Are you freaking kidding me?
Also from that contract…
The city will expedite all permits and other permissions needed to build out the convention
Chicago is notorious for over-permitting. One can’t help but wonder if that’s a problem with the migrant housing situation as well.
* Like the convention, the city and state simply cannot afford to handle this migrant influx on their own (and, for that matter, neither can Texas). US Rep. Quigley and others need to put at least the same effort into dealing with this problem as they are to ensure delegates’ credentials arrive safely at their heavily guarded hotels.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Pritzker was asked about this today. A couple of his responses…
Just to be clear with everybody, we’ve already provided about 150 million of state dollars and services to serve those asylum seekers that are coming to Illinois. That’s since August and continues on today. In January, we passed an additional supplemental appropriation that included money for the city of Chicago and for other agencies, about $90 million, again, to make sure that we were providing the services necessary. […]
But it is true, and the current mayor said it, that our resources are stretched. And we’ve gone to the federal government. I’ve spoken directly with the President, with the chief of staff, with the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and others, and they are helping to push the money from FEMA out the door to states, but it isn’t enough. […]
We believe, we hope, we’ve heard that perhaps we’re going to receive some of that [federal] money this week, or next week. And we’re hopeful of that, but who knows. Meanwhile, my job is to balance the budget of the state of Illinois and take care of the people that are here in our state, all of our residents.
Translation: Take it up with Joe.
- MaddyMoon - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:17 am:
tons of Migrants sleeping in the basement of Ohare. Very sad.
- cal skinnwe - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:19 am:
The folks that got the McDonald’s franchise in Algoguin and Marengo moved from their Chicago location and complained about the annual required driveway permit.
- Steve - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:24 am:
As long as virtually anyone can apply for asylum and come to America: this humanitarian crisis will continue.
- Amalia - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:25 am:
just driving along the highway near the center of the city you can see tents set up for unhoused people. it’s a much bigger issue than migrant. we need facilities created for lots of people.
- Jerry - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:32 am:
I thought the Main Jesus* said to shelter and clothe folks.
*= Optional, if its not politically feasible.
- Red headed step child - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:36 am:
This must end. Solutions needed, not letters
- 4 percent - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:38 am:
So much for a “welcoming city” I guess. Chicago is complaining about 8,000 new arrivals but the elected leaders complained about TX trying to limit the individuals coming across the border. They are seeing hundreds of thousands and millions over time.
- lake county democrat - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:44 am:
Pritzker should step in and offer to resettle them in the Eatern Bloc. Abbott might pick up their calls.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:50 am:
===Like the convention, the city and state simply cannot afford to handle this migrant influx on their own (and, for that matter, neither can Texas). US Rep. Quigley and others need to put at least the same effort into dealing with this problem as they are to ensure delegates’ credentials arrive safely at their heavily guarded hotels.===
Truth.
For me, it’s super simple.
Policy, and thoughts to policy, begins and ends at the weight and measure of the financial commitment to that policy, be it in a budget, grant, any means… the dollars are the measure.
Bills come due, that is always true.
You can’t have policy where it’s implemented but no funding to it during its time.
Step up or back off the policy.
That’s how governing works best
- Lynn Becker - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 11:01 am:
At it’s peak, 1,900 people passed through Ellis Island EVERY DAY. The fact that we can’t figure how to handle the 8,000 that have arrived in Chicago since August (nine months) is an indictment of the basic competence at all levels of government. Immigration is a national issue and the federal government should be funding the processing of immigrants, no matter where they land, and Chicago needs to get its act together and behave like the city that thinks it can handle 50,000 visitors to the Democratic convention.
- JB13 - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 11:01 am:
– But you can’t on the one hand hold your city (and state) out as a welcoming place for immigrants and on the other hand say “We didn’t mean that many all of a sudden!” –
Absolutely spot on.
And “that many all of a sudden” is just a small fraction of what Texas deals with every day. And when they ask for help in slowing the flow, they receive stern lectures about racism and xenophobia from people like Lori Lightfoot and the Democratic Socialist champions of the undocumeted on the Council.
Sometimes you get what you ask for, and you get it good and hard.
- Dan Johnson - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 11:08 am:
Does seem to come back to the need to build a lot more affordable housing. 50,000 units more.
- DuPage Saint - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 11:18 am:
I guess I never thought about it but really the Republican and Democrat conventions are private entities holding a party. Except for security they should pay for their own parties. Do the Libertarians get any money if they hold a convention?
- ChicagoVinny - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 11:25 am:
Short term there will be pain providing housing and other services but longer term, the increased population and economic activity will help the state’s economy. Immigrants pay taxes too.
- DuPage - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 11:27 am:
===1,900 people passed through Ellis Island EVERY DAY.===
The people who passed through Ellis Island had to have a sponsor and certify they would not get any public aid unless and until they became citizens.
- Notatechie - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 11:50 am:
https://www.history.com/news/immigrants-ellis-island-short-processing-time
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 11:55 am:
The 1,900 people that passed through Ellis Island at it’s peak did not receive free healthcare, transportation, housing, food etc.
- Jerry - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 12:11 pm:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”*
*= Don’t forget your form from your Sponsor! (in tiny print)
- Just Me 2 - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 12:18 pm:
The convention should have to follow all the other permit processes and procedures (and delays and costs) as all the other small businesses have to follow. The “purpose” of those procedures is to allow Chicagoans a voice in what is going on in their neighborhood, and if they have that right for their local neighborhood store, they should definitely have it for something as large and disruptive as a national political convention.
- Rich Miller - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 12:24 pm:
===did not receive free healthcare, transportation, housing, food etc.===
Yeah, because they were put to work almost immediately. Asylum seekers are strictly prohibited from working.
But I’m sure you knew that and were just once again posting lies in my comments section. Just about at the end of my rope with you. Do better or you’re permanently gone.
- Out Here In The Middle - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 12:28 pm:
It’s a national issue so perhaps not relevant here, but this “humanitarian crisis” is the direct result of 50+ years of US policy to overtly and covertly interfere with the governance of South & Central American states. Perhaps if we exerted some effort to create jobs and stable economies in those areas there wouldn’t be as many people willing to walk 300 miles through the jungle for some hope of a new life.
- Jerry - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 12:48 pm:
In fact a lot “immigrants” bypassed Ellis Island and were enslaved. They got free healthcare, transportation, housing, and food.
- We've never had one before - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 1:07 pm:
What’s Texas supposed to do, they are being overrun.
They can’t throw ‘em back, so they may as well spread the load.
- Arsenal - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 1:24 pm:
==What’s Texas supposed to do, they are being overrun.==
Texas is a big state with a lot of land and an economy that I’m always told ought to be the envy of Illinois. Maybe they could try to let migrants settle there.
Or, if this were really about “spreading the load”, they could try to coordinate with other states, with the feds, with migrant rights organizations, etc. But they don’t, they just move people around under the cover of darkness. So you can pretend that this is about Texas being “overrun”, and I can smile and tell you that that’s a cool story, bro.
- Arsenal - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 1:27 pm:
==The 1,900 people that passed through Ellis Island at it’s peak did not receive free healthcare, transportation, housing, food etc.==
Women couldn’t vote at the time of Ellis Island’s peak.
- NickNombre - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 1:52 pm:
The Republicans are also suing to block the program that allows refugees to lawfully enter the country even when they have sponsors and are ineligible for government aid. I guess they prefer these people coming illegally?
- Blake - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 2:08 pm:
It’s really disappointing that these kind of comments that Lightfoot made never seem to come with a call for giving work permits to the migrants.
- Last Bull Moose - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 2:32 pm:
Our asylum rules do not fit the world of today. More people qualify than we are able and willing to absorb.
- Just a Citizen - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 2:55 pm:
Out here in the Middle and JB 13 sum up my beliefs well.
- Arsenal - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 3:34 pm:
==Sometimes you get what you ask for, and you get it good and hard.==
I wonder if the migrants asked to be used as political props in Texas’ never-ending game of “Own the libs”.