The city’s response to the arrival of two busloads of migrants sent here from Texas proved Chicago’s mettle as a safe haven for people seeking a better life, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday.
“We are Chicago, a welcoming city, a city where we live our values every single day — a city where immigrants and refugees have been a part of the fabric of the city from our earliest days,” Lightfoot said. “Last night, we showed our mettle — The best of who we are.”
The city has been preparing for this day, Lightfoot said, and worked to greet them with dignity, respect, and resources, she said.
She also blasted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for what she said were “racist” and xenophobic acts. Abbott has begun busing migrants who arrive at the Texas-Mexico border to northern cities, blaming President Joe Biden’s “open” immigration policies for “overwhelming border communities in Texas.” This is the first group of such migrants to be sent to Chicago.
“Gov. Abbott has confirmed what unfortunately many of us already had known that he is a man without any morals, humanity or shame,” Lightfoot said. “Instead of treating these individuals with respect that they deserve or the due process that our require. Gov. Abbott chose instead to inhumanely load them onto buses, send them on a more than 12 hour journey across a country that they don’t known and drop them off without any regard for what the next steps are. These are human beings. Moms and dads, young children, elders who deserve our respect and dignity. They’re not cargo. They are not chattel. They’re human beings.”
[ Timeline: Chicago’s 40-year history as a sanctuary city ]
Asked about any coordination with Texas officials, Lightfoot said it would’ve been nice if the Abbott administration had communicated details about the people they were sending, such as how many there would be and whether anyone needed medical care. That didn’t happen, the mayor said.
“That’s what a leader would do. That is not who Gov. Abbott is,” Lightfoot said. “That’s not what he’s done. What you’re seeing instead is what we do in Chicago, in Illinois.”
She also criticized the bus companies, saying they are “complicit in being a part of this indignity.”
Caleb Senn, general secretary of the Salvation Army, also pledged to support the migrants.
“Our mission is to ensure that all people, whether from Chicago or Venezuela, know no hunger and have a safe place to sleep,” he said.
Dozens of migrants who’d traveled to Texas from south of the U.S. border arrived in Chicago Wednesday evening.
Abbott announced the arrival of the “first group” of migrants bused to Chicago in a separate statement Wednesday night.
In his statement, Abbott said that in addition to Washington, D.C., and New York City, Chicago will now be a drop-off location.
The city started preparing “several weeks back” when migrants from Texas began arriving in New York and Washington, Lightfoot said.
Asked whether the migrants will get permanent housing, Lightfoot said it will depend on each person’s plans — some individuals want to move to other cities where they already have family or contacts, she noted.
Lightfoot had visited the Salvation Army shelter late Wednesday where some migrants were staying and confirmed that 75 migrants arrived to Chicago from Texas on two buses.
Many of the migrants had fled the South American nation of Venezuela. About 15 of the migrants waited along Canal Street Wednesday evening for another bus after arriving from Texas following a trip of more than 12 hour. Most were men; the group also included a young couple who were traveling with a toddler and had another baby on the way. The child was eating a tangerine from a bag provided by a Chicago police officer.
Lightfoot noted that several nonprofits, including the Salvation Army and Resurrection Project, had provided a “tremendous outpouring” of assistance.
Late Wednesday, Governor J.B. Pritzker said in a statement that “Illinois welcomes refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants.” He said the state is working with federal and city officials “to ensure that these individuals are treated with respect and safety as they look to connect with their family and friends.”
He said his great-grandfather emigrated from Ukraine in 1881 and that “immigrants just like my family seeking freedom and opportunity built this country. Illinois is and has always been a welcoming state.”
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The migrants were to receive health screenings and be offered emergency housing, legal resettlement assistance and COVID-19 vaccines, a Pritzker representative said.
Reflecting on the migrants she met Wednesday night, Lightfoot said she was heartened by their good spirits and “incredible determination and resilience.”
Lightfoot said she told children who were present, through an interpreter, “we will be there for them.”
The mayor said she expects to see more migrants arrive but helping take care of them is “something we must do.”
“This is a humanitarian crisis manufactured by a cheap politician who is focused on his own political fortunes and pandering to, frankly, the lowest common denominator in his party at the expense of these people’s … lives,” Lightfoot said. “So we have to be the opposite of that, and do whatever is necessary to stand up in this moment and we will do that.”
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, shared similar sentiments and vowed to assist Lightfoot and Pritzker “to make sure they have what they need at the federal level.”
“No disgusting, political and racist stunt by the Texas governor could stop us from (welcoming the migrants),” she said.
