The city of Chicago will soon use a former hospital to house illegal immigrants who arrived in the Windy City. The effort to allow single male border crossers comes amid considerable protests against the policy of new Mayor Brandon Johnson (D).
The effort would have 150 migrants sheltered in the Near South Health Center.
Residents near the site protested the decision, stating that the “community should have had some type of input about where you’re putting people in our communities.”
Another was concerned about the possible housing of “former gang members.”
The period between the city’s announcement that it was considering the former hospital as a housing site and the final decision took place in less than 24 hours.
The location would be the 14th such site used by the city as shelters for the migrants.
“You say you’re not taking away resources, but you are. We live in the community and some of these resources, we can’t get,” one person told city officials.
Alderman Brendan Reilly sent a letter to Brandon Johnson late last month.
Reilly details complaints regarding the migrants being housed at the Inn of Chicago. He mentions loitering, littering, parking, human waste, drug sales and prostitution at the Inn of Chicago.
We've… pic.twitter.com/vZRXw3eLdn
— 16th & 17th District Chicago Police Scanner (@CPD1617Scanner) July 18, 2023
The mayor’s efforts come as many migrants are currently housed in Chicago’s police stations. Currently, there are almost 900 illegal immigrants in the city’s police station lobbies.
The mayor said that as soon as migrants are moved from the city’s police stations, “more arrive.”
Another 69 migrants are currently being housed at O’Hare International Airport.
This week, Johnson toured a welcome center in a Chicago public school.
“Let me be very clear: Regardless of the language that a family speaks, their country of origin or the circumstances that have brought them to our city, this local center is equipped to serve them,” he said.
The city estimates that more than 11,000 migrants have arrived in the city over the last year.
Earlier this year, residents of the city’s South Shore neighborhood protested a plan to house a number of migrants at a former high school, questioning why the city was expending resources for illegal immigrants over American citizens.
Chicago’s city council approved $51 million to aid the arrivals in May.
