Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker has begged his Texas counterpart Greg Abbott to stop busing migrants to Chicago as inclement weather is set to hit the Windy City this week.
The Democrat’s request comes as new census numbers show Chicago has 4,468 more recently-arrived asylum seekers than previously thought, bringing the total number to 34,562.
‘While action is pending at the federal level, I plead with you for mercy for the thousands of people who are powerless to speak for themselves,’ Pritzker, a Democrat, wrote in a letter to the Republican send on Friday and seen by the Chicago Sun-Times.
‘Please, while winter is threatening vulnerable people’s lives, suspend your transports and do not send more people to our state.’
Pritzker added that Abbott’s ‘callousness’ in flying or busing migrants to Chicago during the weather conditions was ‘now life-threatening to every one of the arrivals’ as temperatures are expected to plunge.
Illinois’; democratic governor J.B. Pritzker has begged his Texas counterpart Greg Abbott to stop busing migrants to Chicago
Governor Abbott’s office replied by saying he will stop sending migrants to Chicago when the president ‘secures the border’
The city has received 34,562 migrants since Abbott began sending asylum seekers who cross the US-Mexico border to northern sanctuary cities
Governor Abbott’s office replied by saying he will stop sending migrants to Chicago when the president ‘secures the border,’ and claimed bus drivers were taking extra precautions due to the weather.
The Republican’s spokesman Andrew Mahaleris told the Sun-Times: ‘Instead of complaining about migrants sent from Texas, where we are also preparing to experience severe winter weather across the state, Governor Pritzker should call on his party leader to finally do his job and secure the border — something he continues refusing to do.
‘Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue transporting migrants to sanctuary cities to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis.’
Wind chills in Chicago reached minus 17 degrees over the weekend.
Hundreds of migrant families were placed in one of the 27 temporary shelters the city set out for them, with roughly 200 staying in warming buses at the city’s landing zone.
The city has received 34,562 migrants since Abbott began sending asylum seekers who cross the US-Mexico border to northern sanctuary cities, including over 4,000 who have arrived via plane.
Migrants have been arriving in the Democrat-led cities on buses funded by the Republican governors of Texas and Florida
Chicago is scrambling to house hundreds of asylum-seekers who are still sheltering on sidewalks, at police stations and at the city’s busiest airport as the cold weather sets in and with winter just around the corner.
Other Democratic-led cities are grappling with similar influxes, including Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and New York, which has received more than 120,000 asylum-seekers.
Illinois announced last month that it would funnel an additional $160 million to help resettle migrants who arrive in Chicago, including $65 million to help the city build and operate two temporary shelters to avoid people sleeping out in the cold.
The state announced it would give an additional $4 million that will go toward feeding asylum-seekers in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
The mayors of Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and New York have been pressing for more federal aid to deal with the surge.
Migrants have been arriving in the Democrat-led cities on buses funded by the Republican governors of Texas and Florida. Critics initially waved off the effort as a political stunt, but more than a year later, the cities are struggling to cope with the influx and their resources are dwindling.
The situation is even more pressing in New York than in Chicago. New York has received more than 140,000 asylum seekers over the past year, and about half of them are staying in shelters run by the city, which is legally required to provide emergency housing to homeless people.
New York Mayor Eric Adams has called the city’s migrant influx a crisis and has begun to warn that shelters are so full that migrants will soon be forced onto the street despite the cold weather.