Migrants who sleep in Chicago police stations for weeks say they are doing better than their counterparts who were taken to state shelters.
Chicago Tribune reporters spent a night at a police station speaking to migrants who had developed a routine there.
When asked by a city official which of them would like to be transferred to an emergency shelter, they all declined, saying they were comfortable there and claiming their friends had told them that conditions in the government-run shelters were poor emergency shelters are worse.
But Chicago officials have already spent another $51 million looking after migrants over the past month as thousands of illegal immigrants continue to pour into the Windy City.
Executives say they are now looking for “more sustainable solutions.”
A Venezuelan migrant couple and their 17-month-old daughter rest in the lobby of a police station where they have been staying with other migrant families since arriving in the city on May 9
A Venezuelan migrant father changes his 15-month-old son’s diaper in the lobby of a police station
The migrants housed at Chicago police stations say they are doing better than those in shelters
Officials in Chicago have repeatedly said they can’t afford to rent hotel rooms for the more than 10,000 migrants who have arrived since August, and with nowhere else to go, they have begun to fill police stations.
Chicago is one of many northern cities — most of which are Democrat-run and designated “safe cities” — to which southern governors have sent busloads of migrants from the US-Mexico border.
As of Friday, 4,878 migrants were in shelters operated by the City of Chicago and 460 others were awaiting placement in police stations as shelters remain full, Mary May, spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, told the Tribune.
She said police district census numbers are analyzed each morning and “decompression” decisions about who is allowed to leave stations are based on the number of migrants at each station, the needs of people with special circumstances, the availability of space and transportation.
“Individuals are given a service number request number of 311 upon arrival in the system.” “That helps track when they arrive,” May said.
“As newcomers and asylum seekers continue to arrive in Chicago via buses and other transportation, city officials are simultaneously working to find spaces that can be converted into temporary shelters and to assist individuals and families in finding more permanent housing options.”
Migrants with “medical or special needs, families or singles with other critical needs such as pregnancy” are given priority in temporary housing.
But even if the number of migrants in need of shelter falls, May says it’s quickly picking up again as more migrants pour into the city of refuge.
Since May 9, nearly two dozen buses have arrived from Texas — seven since the middle of the month.
City officials brought about 38 migrants to the station in the 5th Precinct in early May, reports the Tribune, and about a dozen remain.
Brianyerlis Carreno 10 of Venezuela holds her 8-month-old brother Mateo Vargas outside the Chicago Police Station in the 12th Precinct, where video showed migrants living in the hallway
In the picture, some migrants are sitting on the floor of a police station, waiting for emergency shelter
Officials in Chicago have repeatedly said they cannot afford to rent hotel rooms for the more than 10,000 migrants who have arrived since August
Those with families are among the migrants who are given priority in emergency shelters if a place becomes available
There, the migrants said, one volunteer takes them to work at a construction site every day, while another takes them to a different location to shower two to three times a week.
The migrants at the police station say they subsist on sandwiches and non-perishable foods.
Footage released by photojournalist Rebecca Brannon showed dozens of migrants sitting on and around mattresses at a Chicago police station.
Brannon reported that many of the migrants slept and ate on the floor, disrupting everyday police work.
Occasionally, some of the migrants who spoke to the Tribune said they were scowled at by the police officers on duty.
“We’re not here because we want to be.” “I want to go,” Betzabeth Blancho said. “My husband goes out every day to find work. I go out every day to find work.
“I want to tell them that we’re trying to make money so we can move out as soon as possible,” she said of the officers, adding, “It’s not easy living here.”
But when approached about possibly moving to a city-run shelter, Blancho and others at the station declined. They cited the job, which could earn them up to $150 a day, and said they had heard from friends that conditions at the shelters were worse.
In fact, other migrants in nine different shelters told the Tribune that they are crammed into hotel rooms or sleeping on the floor, consuming cold and unsavory meals, and don’t know where to find resources.
Volunteers also stated that they were forbidden from entering the emergency shelters and providing the migrants with donations of clothing and hot meals.
Venezuelan migrant Victoria Oropeza, 9, rests her face on the stomach of her father William, 24, as the two wait in line at a migrant processing center for food from a food truck
Last month, city officials threw $51 million at the migrant issue to help Mayor Brandon Johnson deal with the crisis he inherited from outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
The money was to be spent on emergency shelter staff, food, transportation and legal services in hopes it would alleviate the city’s crisis.
Now Johnson’s administration says it is looking for “more sustainable solutions” to make Chicago a “hospitable city.”
“We are known as a hospitable city, we have an ordinance to that effect, and now the infrastructure is being built to be able to implement this concept,” First Deputy Chief of Staff Cristina Pacone-Zayas said in a statement to WTTW.
“We want to work with our community-based organizations so they can staff our shelters.” They can also support the case management needed to find permanent housing solutions, and we’re working with the state to provide six-month rental assistance to cover so that individuals can start their lives in Chicago and embark on the journey towards sustainable resettlement in our cities.’
This rental assistance is available to anyone in a city-operated emergency shelter.
In addition, Pacone-Zayas said city officials are in discussions with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and national employers’ organizations “who also have a desire to streamline work permitting for migrants who apply for a work permit.”