Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has pleaded with his Texas counterpart, Greg Abbott, to stop busing migrants to Chicago as inclement weather hits the Windy City this week.
The Democrat’s request comes as new census figures show Chicago has 4,468 more newly arrived asylum seekers than previously thought, bringing the total number to 34,562.
“While action is pending at the federal level, I ask for clemency for the thousands of people who cannot speak for themselves,” Pritzker wrote in a letter to the Republican Party on Friday and seen by the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Please, as winter threatens the lives of vulnerable people, suspend your transportation and do not send any more people to our state.”
Pritzker added that Abbott’s “callousness” in flying or busing migrants to Chicago during the weather conditions “now endangers the lives of every one who arrives” as temperatures are expected to drop.
Illinois’; Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has pleaded with his Texas counterpart, Greg Abbott, to stop busing migrants to Chicago.
Governor Abbott’s office responded 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 crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to sanctuary cities in the north.
Gov. Abbott’s office responded by saying he will stop sending migrants to Chicago when the president “secures the border” and stated that bus drivers were taking extra precautions because of the weather.
Republican spokesman Andrew Mahaleris told the Sun-Times: “Instead of complaining about immigrants sent from Texas, where we are also preparing for a harsh winter across the state, Governor Pritzker should ask his party leader to finally do your job and secure the border, something you continue to refuse 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-induced crisis.”
The wind chill in Chicago reached -17 degrees over the weekend.
Hundreds of immigrant families were housed in one of 27 temporary shelters the city established for them, and approximately 200 remained in heated buses at the city’s landing zone.
The city has received 34,562 migrants since Abbott began sending asylum seekers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to sanctuary cities in the north, including more than 4,000 who arrived by plane.
Immigrants have arrived in Democratic-led cities on buses funded by the Republican governors of Texas and Florida.
Immigrants are seen at the landing zone in the West Loop, Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, in Chicago.
Migrants walk after receiving food outside the migrant landing zone during a winter storm on January 12, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.
Chicago is struggling to house hundreds of asylum seekers still sheltering on sidewalks, in police stations and at the city’s busiest airport as the cold weather sets in and winter is just around the corner.
Other Democratic-led cities are dealing 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 arriving in Chicago, including $65 million to help the city build and operate two temporary shelters to prevent people from sleeping rough in the cold.
The state announced it would donate an additional $4 million that will go toward feeding asylum seekers in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
Chicago spent nearly $1 million on a shuttered migrant camp on a Brighton Park lot, despite warnings that the site was unsafe after toxic chemicals and heavy metals were found there.
The plans were scrapped weeks before a five-year-old boy fell ill and was pronounced dead in one of Chicago’s cramped shelters in an unheated warehouse housing thousands of other immigrants on Dec. 18.
The mayors of Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and New York have been pushing for more federal aid to deal with the surge.
Immigrants have been arriving in Democratic-led cities on buses funded by the Republican governors of Texas and Florida. Critics initially dismissed the effort as a political stunt, but more than a year later, 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 housed 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 influx of migrants into the city a crisis and has begun warning that shelters are so full that migrants will soon be forced onto the streets despite the cold weather.