* AP on the legal front…

A federal judge on Friday denied a bid by immigration advocates to prohibit U.S. officials from turning away asylum-seekers at border crossings with Mexico if they don’t have appointments on a mobile phone app.

The ruling is a victory for the Biden administration and its approach to creating new pathways to enter the United States, while, at the same time, making it more difficult for those who don’t follow prescribed methods to seek asylum. […]

The government appealed a decision to block a new rule that makes it more difficult to claim asylum for anyone who travels through another country, like Mexico, and enters the U.S. illegally. That rule remains in effect while under appeal.

Another closely watched case challenges a policy to grant a two-year stay for up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela if they apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive at an airport. Texas is leading 21 states to argue that Biden overreached, saying it “amounts to the creation of a new visa program that allows hundreds of thousands of aliens to enter the United States who otherwise have no basis for doing so.”

* ABC7 on the local politics front …

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will visit the southern border with multiple alderpeople this week.

Johnson said earlier this month that he will be making a trip to the border to see the migrant crisis first-hand.

*** UPDATE 1 *** The mayor changed his mind…

BREAKING: Mayor Brandon Johnson *WILL NOT* travel to the southern border this week, the mayor's office tells @wttw News.
Johnson has decided his time is better spent here in Chicago, grappling with the rapidly escalating number of buses arriving everyday, his spokesman said.

— Heather Cherone (@HeatherCherone) October 16, 2023

*** UPDATE 2 *** Johnson is still sending a delegation…

Mayor Brandon Johnson postpones trip to the U.S. border. But the city will still send a delegation this week. The Deputy Mayor for Migrant and Immigrant Rights will lead a delegation of state officials, alders and civic leaders. They will depart tomorrow.

— Tahman Bradley (@tahmanbradley) October 16, 2023

[ *** End Of Updates *** ]

* CBS2 showed video of city trucks clearing out the parking lot last week, so I’m thinking the city might be doing more than just considering this site…

City officials are considering building a massive tent to house the more than 3,500 migrants now living at police stations and O’Hare International Airport on a vacant, privately-owned lot in Brighton Park, Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th Ward) said Sunday.

In a statement posted to her official social media accounts, Ramirez said she was working to gather information from the mayor’s office about the city’s plan to open a temporary shelter on a vacant lot near 38th Street and California Avenue.

A spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson did not respond to two requests for comment from WTTW News. Cristina Pacione Zayas, Johnson’s first deputy chief of staff, told reporters Thursday that an announcement of the location of what city leaders call “winterized base camps” was “imminent.” […]

More than 3,567 migrants are living in police stations across the city and at O’Hare International Airport with another 11,043 migrants living in city shelters as of Friday, according to city data. Johnson has said the crisis was caused by “right-wing extremists bent on sowing chaos and division in our city.”

Still curious how the asylum-seekers are gonna stay warm in those tents. Chicago isn’t exactly known for mild winters.

* The Tribune has a story entitled “Democrats welcome mat for migrants is also fraying party’s base”…

From almost the moment he took office, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has championed the state as a sanctuary for immigrants. But in his quest to keep Illinois a “welcoming state,” the welcome mat is becoming politically frayed as Chicago tries to cope with an influx of more than 18,000 asylum-seekers.

What was once altruistic idealism delivered 1,200 miles away from the nation’s southern border is now colliding with realism in how to temporarily house, provide for and resettle thousands of asylum-seekers in a crisis largely orchestrated by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to use his state’s long-standing border issues to paint leaders in Democratic cities and states as hypocrites.

As each new bus arrives here from Texas and other locales, more political pressure mounts on Pritzker and on Chicago’s new progressive Democratic leadership under Mayor Brandon Johnson.

With no firm plans in place and the only concrete advice to incoming migrants being Pritzker’s warning that “it’s gonna get cold in Chicago and New York very soon,” cracks among the Democratic base, particularly among key ethnic and racial blocs, have emerged over spending taxpayer dollars and housing for migrants.

It’s definitely worth a full read.

* Cold weather is definitely a theme right now…

Even as temperatures drop, Yaritsa Leal and a dozen of her family members are sleeping outside the Town Hall District police station. There isn’t enough room for them inside.

They’ve jury-rigged a tent to shield them from the elements, but it’s not enough to keep out Chicago weather.

“We huddle under there and give each other warmth,” said Leal, 43. “I feel cold, I feel uncomfortable, and I feel scared, but I know that I can’t come here and demand too much.” […]

The North Side police station is one of the few where migrants have recently found some relief inside a city warming bus overnight, but that’s not offered at all stations, and those with little protection are facing a precarious situation advocates worry could become disastrous.

* Sun-Times…

A judge said Friday he was “horribly disturbed” by accusations that a man opened fire at a group of migrants outside a South Side police station, wounding a man from Colombia and a Venezuelan woman holding her child.

Anthony Evans, 25, then led police on a high-speed chase that ended in a crash with serious injuries to an officer that may require amputation, according to prosecutors.

Judge Joseph Gump ordered Evans held in jail while awaiting trial on counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated driving under the influence and unlawful use of weapon.

* More from Isabel…

* CBS Chicago | More than 11,000 migrants are staying in Chicago shelters, census figures show: Just over 3,700 are waiting for placement with just over 3,200 at Chicago Police Department Districts. Nearly 500 are at O’Hare and Midway airports.

* Crain’s | Chicago and Illinois call for faster work authorizations to alleviate migrant crisis: On Sept. 20, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it would extend the work authorizations for 18 months to migrants who arrived in the United States from Venezuela before July 31. The extension would only apply to Venezuelan migrants, who make up the majority of those crossing the border, although immigrants have arrived from other countries in South America and Central America, as well as Africa.

* NBC Chicago | Chicago charged $7.2M to staff migrant shelters during four-week period, invoices show: As we previously reported, Favorite Healthcare Staffing billed the city $20,000 for a single nurse during one week last December. The new invoices show that despite hourly rates being reduced this spring, Favorite Healthcare Staffing still billed the city for $16,536 for that same nurse to work seven days in April. All told, in the four weeks we examined, the company charged Chicago more than $64,000 for the services of one nurse, who was working at the YMCA High Ridge shelter.

* Reuters | No shade, no water, and record heat: More migrants die in U.S. desert: In the last 12 months through September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) logged 60 migrant deaths due to heat in the El Paso Sector, triple the same period a year ago.

* Teen Vogue | A Day in the Life of a Teenage Asylum Seeker: I first met Christopher two days earlier, when his family visited my apartment for a video call with an immigration judge — their first meeting through New York City’s court system since they arrived earlier this year. They couldn’t rely on the shelter’s spotty Wi-Fi for such an important call, so the family of four piled into my studio apartment for their morning appointment.

* Block Club | How To Help Migrants In Chicago As Winter Approaches: City officials and community groups said they need temperature-appropriate clothing for the colder months. Also, some groups are trying to help people furnish new apartments as they transition out of city-run shelters and free up space for others.

* WBEZ | What does it mean for Chicago to be a sanctuary city?: But one expert says the term “sanctuary city” has been misused, and that lawmakers, the public and the media conflate the term with policies that provide public benefits and resources.