- About 15,000 asylum-seekers are still crammed into shelters across the city
- Texas sends hundreds more from US-Mexico border every day as crisis grows
- Johnson called this ‘reckless and dangerous’ but also hit out at the feds
By NIC WHITE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:55 EST, 27 December 2023 | UPDATED: 17:06 EST, 27 December 2023
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has blamed both the Biden Administration and Texas for his city struggling to care for thousands of migrants.
The city has spent $138 million on the crisis that is only expected to get worse as temperatures drop as winter goes on.
Johnson said about 15,000 asylum-seekers were crammed into 27 shelters across the city after being bused in from the US-Mexico border, particularly Texas.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent more than 25,300 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, on buses and more recently on charter flights.
About 10,000 migrants are crossing the border every day and many of them are sent to ‘sanctuary cities’ like Chicago, New York, and Denver.
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Johnson renewed his feud with Abbott, calling his actions ‘reckless and dangerous’, but also bemoaned the lack of federal support.
‘I’ve said repeatedly that we need more resources and I’ve asked for $15 billion for the entire country,’ he said on CNN on Wednesday.
Johnson said he appreciated the federal government handing out work permits to get immigrants into jobs so they could support themselves.
But he warned: ‘Without significant investment from our federal government, it won’t just be the city of Chicago that won’t be able to maintain this mission.
‘It’s the entire country that is now at stake.’
He shot another barb at President Joe Biden by calling for ‘real, substantive immigration reform and policies that allow us to have a structure and a pathway to citizenship’.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has blamed both the Biden Administration and Texas for his city struggling to care with thousands of migrants
Johnson said about 15,000 asylum-seekers were crammed into shelters across the city after being bused in from the US-Mexico border, particularly Texas
Hundreds of asylum seekers temporarily stay at the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago
The mayor claimed since he was elected seven months ago, poor coordination between federal, state, and local government had made the crisis worse.
‘What I’ve worked to do instead of having chaos is provide some structure and calm around this situation and without significant federal support. This is not sustainable,’ he said.
‘We’re talking about individuals who have suffered miles, thousands of miles of treachery, quite frankly, to get to the border.
‘And so what we’ve seen… is that lack of coordination has caused tremendous stress.’
An example included Abbott loading as many immigrants on to buses as he could and sending them to Illinois with no warning.
Chicago tried to have them arrive at designated locations during business hours and impounding buses that didn’t follow these rules.
However, bus companies responded by dropping off migrants as far as 60 miles from Chicago, and Abbott started sending them on charter flights.
Texas spent $86.1 million so far sending migrants to ‘sanctuary cities’ around the country, about $1,650 per person.
‘In no way what the state of Texas is doing is helping the cause,’ Johnson said on Wednesday.
‘As much as we recognize there are significant challenges at the border… sending buses all over Illinois and all over the country is reckless and, quite frankly, dangerous.’
A young migrant girl eagerly shows what she made from the overnight snowfall, in a small tent community in Chicago
Chicago’s mayor claimed since he was elected seven months ago, poor coordination between federal, state, and local government had made the crisis worse
Johnson was joined by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston later on Wednesday for a coordinated attack on both Texas and the federal government.
‘We cannot do this alone, we need more support from the federal government and today we stand charged and committed to ensure that our respective cities do our part and we need the federal government to lean in and provide more financial assistance,’ he said.
‘All of our cities have reached a point where we are either close to capacity or nearly out of room.
‘Without significant intervention from the federal government, this mission will not be sustained.’
Johnson said the haphazard arrival of ‘rogue buses’ from Texas had ‘created an incredible amount of chaos’ that was damaging local economies.
‘[They are] literally dropping families in the middle of nowhere,’ he said.
‘These families have experienced a great deal of political turmoil, trekking hundreds of thousands of miles to get to the border without real care or processing and without a system in place.
‘The rogue buses, and now chartered flights, is not only unsafe but inhumane. So we are calling on not just the federal government to provide support and resources to address this humanitarian crisis, we also need better coordination at the border.
‘The state of Texas has a responsibility to connect with municipalities around the country to help address and deal with this crisis.’
Mayor Adams backed him up on both points, urging Abbott to stop ‘using migrants as political pawns’ but also on Biden to do far more to help.
‘We cannot continue to do the federal government’s job… we need action and we need it now,’ he said.
‘This is a national problem that has only been exacerbated by Governor Abbott’s cruel and inhumane politics and that requires additional, national solutions.
‘The federal government must take responsibility and lead on this humanitarian crisis instead of leaving it to cities and localities to handle.’Abbott taunts Johnson with video of migrants being flown to Chicago
Migrants are seen lining up in El Paso on Dec. 19 to board the plane to Chicago
Officials from the City of El Paso have been working with state officials to bus over 17,000 migrants out of the West Texas city
Texas migrants buses
- Over 12,500 migrants to Washington, D.C. since April 2022
- Over 31,200 migrants to New York City since August 2022
- Over 25,300 migrants to Chicago since August 2022
- Over 3,400 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022
- Over 11,800 migrants to Denver since May 18
- Over 1,200 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14
Source: Office of Gov. Greg Abbott
Conditions in Chicago’s migrant shelters have been under a microscope since five-year-old boy Jean Carlo Martinez Rivero died on December 17.
Johnson maintained there was ‘no evidence the condition of the shelter caused the death of this young boy’.
Volunteers who try to help the asylum-seekers as best they can argue differently, submitting lists of concerns to city officials months before Jean’s death.
Photos and videos inside the shelter where he died showed 2,300 migrants huddled together in freezing temperatures under a leaking roof.
One video showed a young boy with what appeared to be a bandage on his head lying on a thin fold-out bed, distracting himself with a tablet.
Another shows a different child coughing and crying as they had their temperature taken and were examined by volunteers.
A third video showed water leaking from the roof and pooling on one of the beds.
Despite strict ordinances penalizing charter buses loaded with migrants heading into Illinois, buses and planes with migrants are bound for Chicago as we speak, El Paso officials confirmed to DailyMail.com. Insider gives glimpse into cramped migrant shelter where child died
Five-year-old Jean Carlo Martinez Rivero fell ill while at the Pilsen migrant shelter and was pronounced dead on arrival in hospital on Sunday days later
Last week, the Texas Division of Emergency Management or TDEM, which handles migrant transports, chartered its first flight with migrants to Chicago to avoid growing restrictions over when and where migrants can be dropped off.
‘TDEM basically flipped it; they said if we’re going to have problems with buses, we are going to send flights,’ John Martin, who runs the Opportunity Center for the Homeless in El Paso, told DailyMail.com in an interview on Tuesday.
Migrants without money to move on to their final destination often opt to get on one of the Texas buses headed to so-called sanctuary cities.
They sign a waiver saying they voluntarily agree to get on and be taken to New York City, Chicago, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Denver, or Los Angeles.
From there, the state takes over.