Chicago Mayor Asks Texas To Stop Busing Migrants Amid Shelter Shortage

Mayor Lori Lightfoot accused Gov. Greg Abbott of intentionally trying to cause chaos by shipping thousands of migrants across the country.
A bus carrying migrants departs from a U.S. Border Patrol processing facility in Eagle Pass, Texas, in October.
A bus carrying migrants departs from a U.S. Border Patrol processing facility in Eagle Pass, Texas, in October.
Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) has sent a letter to Texas’ governor pleading for the state to withhold busing any more migrants to her city due to a critical lack of shelter, space and resources.

Lightfoot, in a letter sent Sunday, accused Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of intentionally trying to cause chaos and “score political points” by continually busing the migrants across the country without any attention to the passengers’ needs or coordination with local officials.

“Though I am sympathetic to the significant challenges that border cities face, this situation is completely untenable. The national immigration program will not be solved by passing on the responsibility to other cities,” she said in a letter shared on social media.

Since August, Chicago has received more than 8,000 men, women, and children from Texas, creating a “humanitarian crisis,” Lightfoot said.

“Nearly all the migrants have been in dire need of food, water, and clothing and many needed extensive medical care. Some of the individuals you placed on buses were women in active labor, and some were victims of sexual assault,” she said. “None of these urgent needs were addressed in Texas. Instead, these individuals and families were packed onto buses and shipped across the country like freight without regard to their personal circumstances.”

At a joint City Council committee meeting on Friday, Chicago city leaders said they are facing a $53 million shortfall to handle the arriving migrants and that they have not received federal assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Lightfoot told Abbott in her letter that she will urge that FEMA funding be halted for Texas “if chartered buses resume coming to our city.”

“But I would rather work with you than against you,” she added.

Abbott has said that his decision to bus migrants to Chicago, as well as Washington, D.C., and New York City, is in direct response to President Joe Biden’s “open border policies” which he said have overwhelmed his state’s border communities. The cities he has targeted with these migrant dumps have identified themselves as “sanctuary cities,” that will welcome refugees, regardless of their legal status.

In Chicago’s case, it has said that it will not ask about one’s immigration status, disclose that information to authorities, or deny city services to someone based on their immigration status.

Abbott has accused sanctuary cities of promoting lawlessness and has banned them in his state.

Federal officials have acknowledged that there has been an unprecedented number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Texas border, as the western hemisphere experiences what’s being described as “the greatest displacement of people since World War II.”

Homeland Security officials have said they are preparing for an elevated level of border encounters once Title 42 expires on May 11. That pandemic-era rule denied asylum to migrants as a means to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Authorities, in response to this expected rise, announced in February stiffer penalties for individuals who are found attempting unlawful entry into the U.S. ― including those seeking asylum ― or those who fail to first seek protection in a country that they traveled through while heading to the U.S.

The White House, FEMA and representatives with Lightfoot’s and Abbott’s offices did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Monday.

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