A member of the Chicago City Council criticized Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) over conditions for migrants in the Windy City. Alderman Brendan Reilly (D) wrote to the mayor, citing daily concerns “regarding new arrivals” living at a hotel in the city.
Reilly represents an area in the city’s downtown. The letter states that “hundreds of our shared constituents and many businesses have contacted my office to express concerns about migrants loitering, littering, illegally parking their vehicles and leaving human waste on the sidewalks near the hotel.”
Furthermore, the alderman added that there had been reports of migrants living in the Inn of Chicago hotel selling narcotics and “engaging in lewd activity, including possible prostitution.”
The current controversy is the latest facing Chicago since thousands of migrants have entered the city. The wave of immigrants has been heavily influenced by the decision of President Joe Biden to end the Title 42 asylum program instituted by former President Donald Trump.
The increased flow of migrants to the border has been met by efforts in Republican-led states such as Texas and Florida to send migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities and states.
Chicago has received a number of migrants during the current crisis.
In May, residents of the city’s South Shore neighborhood protested the City Council’s plans to convert a former high school into a holding center for migrants.
A community meeting criticized the effort to use the former South Shore high school to begin housing about 250 migrants.
Chicago has nearly 900 hundred migrants living in the lobbies of police stations around the city. Another 70 are living at O'Hare. https://t.co/FJznbgxw72
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) July 18, 2023
“While this does cause a crisis for Chicago, this does not constitute a crisis for the south shore community,” said Alderman Michelle Harris (D).
One resident said that the city currently does not have the resources to support citizens, “but you’re gonna bring people who are not citizens here in our community in our buildings that we pay taxes for that you took away from us?”
“We have a responsibility to make sure that families that are seeking love and support in Chicago and in Illinois, that they are not just welcome but serviced,” then-Mayor-elect Johnson said.
