Chicago-area suburbs reject busloads of immigrants arriving from Texas
by Rachel Schilke, Breaking News Reporter
December 12, 2023 12:58 PM
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Two Chicago suburbs rejected busloads of immigrants that arrived from El Paso, Texas, over the past week as the city and Illinois as a whole continue to face an influx of illegal immigrants from the southern border.
Several buses arrived at the Metra stations in Cicero, Illinois, and Rosemont, Illinois, near the O’Hare International Airport’s remote parking area, according to the Chicago Tribune. Rosemont police allowed the immigrants to get off the bus if there was someone picking them up, but officers threatened to impound the bus and arrest the driver for endangering the passengers if he let them out, Mayor Brad Stephens said.
The Rosemont Village Board planned to consider an ordinance to support the officers’ claims. In Cicero, the town approved a measure to fine bus companies $750 per person for letting out homeless immigrants, town spokesman Ray Hanania told the outlet.
“It’s wrong to drop people on the street with nowhere to go,” Hanania said. “We think every community should do this to prevent this. They need to force the state to come up with a better plan for homeless people.”
This is the latest display of suburbs resisting the increase of illegal immigrants trickling into towns from Chicago, where almost 26,000 immigrants have arrived since August. With most of them homeless, the immigrants have taken shelter at police stations and the airport.
Suburbs such as Schaumburg, Illinois, and Elk Grove Village, Illinois, have passed ordinances preventing illegal immigrants from being housed in hotels. Elk Grove officials also passed an ordinance preventing immigrants from residing in the village without a doctor’s certification that they don’t carry infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. The village has blocked its many factories and shopping centers from housing immigrants, bought a hotel that immigrants were staying in, and demolished it, according to the local newspaper.
“It shouldn’t be all these mayors fixing the problem,” Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said. “It’s not our job. We’re not built to handle this. Hopefully, the federal government says, OK, let’s fix this problem.”
However, Oak Park is paying to house immigrants in hotels, approving $1 million in aid using funds from a state grant and federal COVID-19 recovery funds.
“I consider it a humanitarian crisis,” Village President Vicki Scaman said, according to the city paper. “The cold weather in Chicago makes emergency temporary housing necessary.”
“It is unsustainable for any one community to do it all by themselves,” Scaman added.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced in September that he planned to move over 1,600 immigrants from police stations to permanent camps before winter. He has blamed the “international crisis” he “inherited” from former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
The city of Chicago continues to accept busloads of illegal immigrants, but like Cicero, it is suing bus companies and seeking the ability to impound buses and fine owners $3,000 if they don’t follow Chicago’s rules limiting the time and frequency of arrivals.
However, Johnson’s plan to relocate the immigrants to tent shelters is now on pause after his pitch for a first tent shelter failed. Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) nixed the controversial plan to build a shelter at Brighton Park after a report highlighted environmental concerns. The state was set to allocate $65 million in funding for the Brighton Park site, with plans to house up to 2,000 immigrants.
The city’s other designated tent shelter in Morgan Park is now on hold, with mayoral spokesman Ronnie Reese stating that “there are no immediate plans for 115th and Halsted,” referring to the South Side site.
Reese said the reason for the immigrant camp pause is the success of housing immigrants at other locations. Seventeen churches are opening their doors to house and feed immigrants, funded by $350,000 in private donations with no cost to taxpayers, per the mayor’s Unity Initiative.
Johnson’s recent budget, passed on Nov. 15, will allocate $150 million to illegal immigrants, a decline from previous estimates that placed the cost at over $360 million. Homelessness investments also will increase to $250 million, while anti-violence programming will reach $100 million.
