Videos released on Monday show Chicago police departments have converted sections of their station houses into makeshift shelters to house the wave of illegal migrants arriving daily from the Southern border.
Footage recorded by an independent photojournalist, Rebecca Brannon, captured scenes of migrants with bags and other belongings sleeping in police stations “dealing with bed bugs, illnesses, food and basic healthcare shortages.”
“Some migrants I spoke with have been here from days to weeks and don’t know where they will go,” the videographer added.
Numerous Chicago police stations are serving as makeshift shelters for migrants and are dealing with bed bugs, illnesses, food and basic healthcare shortages.
Some migrants I spoke with have been here from days to weeks and don’t know where they will go. pic.twitter.com/f6xnqrwmpN
— Rebecca Brannon (@RebsBrannon) May 22, 2023
Brannon visited eight local police departments on Monday and found all “solely relying on local residents’ donations or volunteers,” to deal with the influx of illegal migrants.
“A police source speaking on anonymity shared that they are receiving no assistance from the City or Government, leaving them to personally support those in need such as purchasing food or baby wipes,” Brannon tweeted on Monday afternoon.
In another video released barely over an hour later, Brannon shows trash bags and miscellaneous migrant belongings scattered across another Chicago police station.
“I’m told just about every station is like this across the city.”
Trash and belongings of migrants are piling up in and outside the several police stations I visited across Chicago. Some precincts have migrants bring their items outside to to help control or prevent bed bugs.
I’m told just about every station is like this across the city. pic.twitter.com/GzY77gGvbX
— Rebecca Brannon (@RebsBrannon) May 22, 2023
According to Brannon’s sources, the 12th Precinct has hosted over 100 migrants at various times, while the 14th District has forced men to sleep outside because there’s not enough room indoors.
Nevertheless, Mayor Brandon Johnson delivered a public address outside the 12th District last Thursday to “meet with new arrivals and asylum seekers.”
“We will never close our doors to those who are here in search of a better life. All our partners, including non-profits & government agencies, are coming together to gather resources,” the newly-minted mayor affirmed.
Johnson blamed the influx on politicians “out to score some political point.”
Yesterday, I visited the 12th District to meet with new arrivals and asylum seekers. We will never close our doors to those who are here in search of a better life. All our partners, including non-profits & government agencies, are coming together to gather resources.🧵 pic.twitter.com/JpGPTET6Y1
— Mayor Brandon Johnson (@ChicagosMayor) May 17, 2023
Texas has bused hundreds of migrants to Chicago in recent months.
“If Chicago can’t deal with 8,000 in less than a year, how are small Texas border communities supposed to manage 13,000 in just one day?” Texas governor Greg Abbott wrote in his response to a letter from former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, who said the city had exhausted its resources trying to address the needs of the 8,000 migrants its taken in since August.
However, reports in the Chicago Sun-Times in late April – just weeks before the pandemic-era policy Title 42 expired – revealed a dire situation in which the city was still grappling with a massive budget shortfall of $53 million as local social services struggled to meet the growing burden.
“Knowing that we’re receiving over 100 people a day requesting shelter, we’re gonna need to make hard decisions as a team about are there spaces that we want to take offline — park district, schools,” the Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze told the newspaper.
“Our system is over capacity,” the commissioner warned last month. “Make no mistake, we are in a surge and things have yet to peak.”