Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot brands Texas Governor Greg Abbott ‘RACIST’ for bussing 60 illegal migrants to her city despite repeatedly bragging of its status as a ‘sanctuary city’
- Mayor Lightfoot and Gov Abbott have been trading warring words since he announced he would send migrants to Chicago from Texas
- Texas has bussed more than 7,000 migrants so far to Washington DC and New York since April
- This is the first bus that has arrived in Chicago from Texas, with Texas spending nearly $13million on the initiative in total
- Lightfoot took a swipe at Abbott, branding him racist, and blaming some of the issue on former President Trump
By EMMA JAMES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 09:41 EDT, 1 September 2022 | UPDATED: 11:40 EDT, 1 September 2022
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has slammed Texas Governor Greg Abbott as ‘racist’ after he announced he would be bussing illegal migrants to the city.
Lightfoot, a Democrat, attacked the GOP governor despite repeatedly bragging that Chicago is a ‘sanctuary city’, as it witnessed the arrival of 60 people on Wednesday, August 30.
She said: ‘Chicago is a welcoming city and as such has collaborated across various departments and agencies to ensure we greeted them with dignity and respect.
‘As a city we are doing everything we can to ensure these immigrants and their families can received shelter, food and most importantly protection.
‘This is not new; Chicago welcomes hundreds of migrants every year to our city and provides much-needed assistance.
‘Unfortunately, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is without and shame or humanity. But ever since he put these racist practices of expulsion in place, we have been working with our community partners to ready the city to receive these individuals. ‘ First two buses of migrants from Texas arrived in Chicago
At least 60 migrants arrived in Chicago from Texas on Wednesday night, with Mayor Lori Lightfoot welcoming the new arrivals
Lightfoot, pictured, took a swipe at Gov Abbott and former President Trump in a statement which branded them as ‘racists’
Texas has bussed more than 7,000 migrants so far to Washington DC and New York since April, spending nearly $13million on the initiative.
They are also sanctuary cities which claim to offer additional protections to illegal immigrants – but the sudden influx has begun to strain the services the cities can offer.
Abbott says he wants to give those Democrat-run cities a taste of what lax border policies are doing to towns in the Lone Star State.
The state has paid $12,707,720.92 to Wynne Transportation, the charter service that is taking migrants to the various cities.
More than 7,400 migrants have been bused to DC since April and more than 1,500 to New York City since August 5.
Gov. Abbott took another swipe at President Biden as he announced that he was sending the first bus to Chicago.
He also called out Lightfoot, saying: ‘President Biden’s inaction at our southern border continues putting the lives of Texans-and Americans-at risk and is overwhelming our communities.
Chicago is the latest destination to which Texas is bussing migrants as part of a strategy to bring attention to the influx of people arriving from the southern border
Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the state had sent the first busload of 100 migrants to Chicago on Wednesday (file photo)
‘To continue to provide much-needed relief to our small, overrun border towns, Chicago will join fellow sanctuary cities…as an additional drop off location.
‘Mayor Lightfoot loves to tout the responsibility of her city to welcome all regardless of legal status, and I look forward to seeing this responsibility in action as these migrants receive resources from a sanctuary city with the capacity to serve them.’
The buses arrived at around 7:30pm last night, as dozens of small children and pregnant women made up large parts of the busload.
Children smiled and waves as they waited to get on another bus to take them and their families to a shelter in Chicago.
Many of those aboard the vehicle said that they were from Venezuela, with one family telling ABC that they were looking to find their family and a better life.
William Mijares said: ‘We just left Venezuela, went to Colombia, going through the jungle in Panama. 
About 60 migrants arrived on two buses on Wednesday night at Chicago’s Union Station, before being taken to shelters around the city
William Mijares, pictured, arrived with his wife an two children after trekking across Venezuela and Colombia to reach the US
A family of three spent two months getting across the US from Venezuela, walking the majority of the way. They had hoped to get to New York, where more people speak Spanish, but were instead transported to Chicago
‘We were not treated like humans. We were treated like the worst kind of people in the world and we don’t understand why, but that’s the way they consider us.
‘We just arrived to Texas and they got us onto our bus and they said someone was going to be waiting for us here, but that was not true.
‘I cannot say it was a nice trip, but it was better than what we had during our passing in South America.’
Another woman added: ‘It took two months to get here. All of my family is still there. The dictatorship, and there is no food. You can’t live on a salary of $2 a month.’
Migrants were also pictured arriving from Texas via bus to Port Authority Bus Station in Manhattan, New York on Tuesday
The migrants could be seen eagerly waiting to disembark following their arrival in New York
A family of three spent two months getting across the US from Venezuela, walking the majority of the way.
Elier, who was with his wife Ana, and daughter Cataleya, 3, told the Chicago Sun Times: ‘We wanted to get to New York because we heard more people speak Spanish there.
‘But we couldn’t get there, so they gave us this option. Now I just have to work and bring a better future for her.’
The new arrivals find themselves in a city amid concerns over a rise in crime, with three law enforcement officers being shot in just one week in June.
Overall crime in Chicago has surged since last year by 35 percent despite shooting incidents lowering by 16 percent.
There were 952 shootings reported in the same period this year, compared to 1,135 in 2021.
Reports of robberies, criminal sexual assault and theft related crimes have all gone up, while murders reported have decreased.
Abbott, who is seeking a third term in November’s midterm elections, says the buses are needed because Democratic President Joe Biden has failed to secure the border with Mexico.
U.S. Border Patrol made a record 1.8 million migrant arrests at the southwest border between October 1, 2021, to July 31, 2022.
Abbott’s office has said migrants are transported out of state only with their written permission although it is not clear what other options have been offered to the migrants.
It was a moment for selfies following the completion of a more than 1,000 mile journey when they arrived in DC on Augsust 26
Immigrants walk towards Union Station after arriving in Washington, DC last week after being bussed across the country from Texas, at the order of Texas Governor Greg Abbott
The poll shows that more than half of Americans think there is an ‘invasion’ while another one-third expressed worry over being ‘replaced’ by illegal immigrants
Since Abbott began the busing effort, the Democratic mayors of Washington and New York City have clamored for federal assistance.
It has also led to a war of words between New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Abbott.
Manuel Castro, the Big Apple’s commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs has accused Abbott of placing security on the buses in order stop migrants from getting off the bus before reaching their destination.
In Washington D.C., newly arrived migrants to the capital have struggled to find permanent housing and medical care.
The White House has said that Abbott’s efforts and a similar push by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, another Republican, are sowing chaos and using migrants as political pawns.
But this past week, the Democrat-led city of El Paso, Texas also sent a bus carrying migrants to New York City and planned to send one to Chicago.
Immigration watchdogs say nearly 4.9 million unauthorized immigrants have entered the U.S. since President Joe Biden took office last year, and have branded New York and Los Angeles as the country’s most dangerous sanctuary cities.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says the record flow of people into the U.S. since Biden’s inauguration includes 3.4 million crossings at the southwest border and 900,000 others who slipped in there undetected.
The startling number adds to growing unease that the Biden administration is asleep at the wheel as record numbers cross the southern border, along with drugs and terror suspects, nudging a majority of Americans to conclude that this amounts to an ‘invasion’.
FAIR’s president Dan Stein said the nearly-5 million human inflow amounted to the ‘entire population of Ireland’ entering the U.S. illegally since 20 January, 2021. He accused the administration of the ‘sabotage of our nation’s immigration laws’.