While in office, former Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot asked Texas Governor Greg Abbott to stop sending migrants to our city. Around 100 migrants daily are being sent to Chicago by bus and plane. According to Lightfoot, 8,100 migrants have arrived here the since August of last year.
The city is at capacity at this rate. What happens? The migrants are expensive, costing the city about $20 million per month, $250 per person daily. Politico reports that President Toni Preckwinkle is appealing to the state to provide money for the migrants by May 19. She, too, is running out of budget for the migrants. With a May 19 deadline looming to wrap up state legislative work, Preckwinkle drove to the state Capitol to directly ask lawmakers to pick up the slack on paying for the health care costs of asylum seekers coming to Illinois.
Preckwinkle says, “The county needs an additional $1.8 million a month to run the Cook County Health system caring for the thousands of migrants who have landed in Chicago since last year. That funding would be in addition to the $1.8 million the county already kicks in.”
The Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, has declared no more migrants in his city. We need to do the same. And here’s why.
It is not fair to the politicians of our municipals to request tax-paying dollars for the migrants. This is now what our taxes are for. It is unfair to the citizen of the municipals to pay for the migrants rather than take care of the poverty and underserved in our backyard. It is a misuse of funds.
Chicago’s Homeless…
Using 2020 statistics, Chicago has 65,611 homeless people. This includes sheltered, unsheltered, and people staying with others. The number is growing, as we see people in tents under the skyway and dwelling on Wacker Drive. Chicago must attend to its homeless people first and migrants second. There should be a limit on how many migrants can enter the city. At this point, they should be turned away or rerouted.
In 2020, Illinois estimated 10,431 people experiencing street and shelter homelessness on any given day, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Where do these families go? First, we should look at all the empty buildings and spaces. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 schools. This should be the first stop. The schools could be converted into living quarters. The second place, look at downtown State Street, Robert Morris College sits vacant, and it’s large enough to accommodate large masses of people. The problem, some will say it’s downtown Chicago. I say it is an empty building.
There are warehouses and empty churches throughout the city. Make use of them. Two federal government buildings downtown are being discussed to be torn down; how about converting the government buildings into housing?
The migrants should not be allowed in the city and taken to the police station for housing. That is not what the police station is for. Where do they eat? Where do they shower?
My point is straightforward. Chicago should take care of its homeless population first and foremost. Are the migrants being distributed evenly in the city? So far, they seem to be unexpectedly placed in Black neighborhoods – Woodlawn, South Shore, and Hyde Park. Are they migrants being placed in Lincoln Park, too? Summer will be here very soon, and to overpopulate Black neighborhoods with strangers is a mistake. It is a recipe for chaos.
Maybe we should follow the path of New York’s mayor, Eric Adams.
A long hot summer is on the way.
