* Tribune: “City has lost all communication about migrant drop offs since new penalties, official says”…

Migrants are no longer being dropped off at the city’s landing zone on buses from the southern border, causing people to wander with no direction looking for shelter, according to an aide to Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, said the lack of communication is directly correlated with the city’s harsher penalties for bus owners whose vehicles violate rules to rein in chaotic bus arrivals from the southern border. She suspects bus companies are finding other ways to get migrants into the city. As of Saturday, more than 25,900 migrants had arrived in Chicago since August 2022, according to city records.

Under revised rules Wednesday, buses face “seizure and impoundment” for unloading passengers without a permit or outside of approved hours and locations. Violators will also be subject to $3,000 fines, plus towing and storage fees. […]

On Friday, she said city officials found migrants in various locations around the city — City Hall, Christkindlmarket and Union Station. According to Pacione-Zayas, migrants reported that bus drivers bought them Ventra cards and Amtrak tickets to get to Chicago.

Many experienced a positive and visceral reaction to this new policy, but then reality intruded. I suppose you can’t expect people to just sit there and take it when you’re whacking them on the shins.

* Meanwhile, shouldn’t the mayor be informed about stuff like this?…

Unreal.

The full NBC 5 story is here.

* Seven months ago…

On May 23, local Chicago activist Ja’Mal Green tweeted about the upcoming Chicago city council vote on additional funding for the influx of illegal immigrants coming to the Sanctuary City.

“Chicago, please send a message to your alderman to vote NO tomorrow to approve another 51 million for the migrant crisis,” Green wrote. “We are already at 125 million dollars in 4 months. Call Joe Biden! Our communities need that money. 20,000 homeless youth. No mental health facilities. No grocery stores. Lead in our pipes. This is ridiculous!”

And this week, that same guy who helped hamper efforts to fund shelters had this to say…

“There’s a medical emergency at this shelter literally as we’re standing here,” former mayoral candidate Ja’Mal Green said. “Governor JB Pritzker needs to step in.”

Green held a news conference outside the shelter near 23rd and Halsted streets calling on the state and the federal government to investigate the health conditions at the shelter.

Not sure why anyone in the state or federal government would care what he demands, but whatevs.

Also, Ms. Cobb is right…

[Veteran political and media consultant Delmarie Cobb] said it’s impossible to separate the ongoing tensions between Black and Latinx communities from the city’s deliberate disinvestment in Black neighborhoods. However, these interactions in City Council and their consequences fundamentally highlight the need for Black and Latinx people to recognize their collective power and work collaboratively to get the necessary resources to thrive.

“If we were to work together, we could run this city, but as long as you keep a wedge between us, that will never happen,” she said.

Amplifying vacuous hate from publicity hungry failed politicos like Green is how the news media plays an irresponsible role in what she’s describing.

* From Isabel…

* Sun-Times | 4 more children and woman from Pilsen migrant shelter are hospitalized: Four girls, ages 1, 4, 8 and 9, and an 18-year-old woman were transported to hospitals at different times Monday morning with fever and vomiting, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. Their conditions weren’t immediately known.

* NBC Chicago | Johnson pushes back on questions over medical care for migrants after child’s death: A cause of death has not yet been determined in the child’s death, but Chicago Department of Public Health officials say that there have been cases of several illnesses, including chickenpox, at multiple shelters, including the location in the 2200 block of South Halsted.

* ABC Chicago | Health concerns grow over Chicago migrant shelters after boy dies, 4 others hospitalized: Late Monday night, a three-year-old who was vomiting and a seven-year-old girl with an ear infection were rushed to UIC. That came after four other children with fevers and a teenager were transported to care, adding to the growing list of medical emergencies at the shelter where a five-year-old boy got sick and later died Sunday.

* CBS Chicago | Death of 5-year-old in Pilsen raises questions about Chicago’s migrant shelters: Mayor Brandon Johnson has offered his condolences to the boy’s family, and has said the city will provide them with support services. As for what led to the boy’s death, Johnson claimed it isn’t a question of how the city’s shelters are run, but instead accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of sending asylum seekers to Chicago under inhumane conditions.

* CBS News | Study finds environmental concerns at proposed migrant tent camp site on Chicago’s Far South Side: The study found that a 275-gallon fuel oil tank was placed under the site – formal address 11414 S. Halsted St. – in 1952. This is a matter for concern based on the lack of removal records and “potential impacts to the subsurface,” the Mayor’s office said. The site also housed the Victors Valet dry cleaning facility, which is also an environmental concern due to a potential for chemical releases that could affect subsurface soils and groundwater, the Mayor’s office said.

* Block Club | Far South Side Tent Camp Site May Have An Oil Tank Underground, Used To Be A Dry Cleaners, Report Says: Materials containing asbestos or lead-based paints could also be present at the lot, according to the report. A3 Environmental Consultants examined the site on Oct. 13.

* Tribune | A temporary migrant shelter will open in Portage Park. Residents have strong feelings: An agreement to open the shelter at St. Bartholomew has not been finalized. Still, the space will open by mid-January, said Beatriz Ponce de León, the city’s Deputy Mayor of Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights. It will stay open for at least six months. The shelter will house families of young children, with capacity for 300 to 350 people. Residents will pass through a metal detector on their way in and out. The shelter will have an 11 p.m. curfew, with exceptions for work.

* WGN | Meeting held about proposed migrant shelter on Northwest Side: “We think this is a really unique opportunity, different than other shelter locations, to sort of bring together our faith and support this initiative and help support this city,” Eric Wollan, chief capital assets officer for the Archdiocese of Chicago, said.