Despite fierce opposition from Chicago citizens, the Chicago City Council approved Mayor Brandon Johnson’s request for $70 million to be doled out to illegal immigrants pouring into the city.
The city council passed the measure with a 30–18 vote on April 19.
The local station also reported that by November 2023, the city was housing 5,000 illegal immigrants in decommissioned police stations and airports, with up to 12,000 migrant children enrolled in city schools since 2022.
Chicago has been a self-proclaimed sanctuary city since 1985 when then-Mayor Harold Washington designated it as such.
Mr. Johnson reaffirmed this declaration but has since struggled with the influx of migrants.
According to a city press release, Chicago has taken in more than 39,000 illegal immigrants since August 2022 when Texas Gov. Greg Abbot began busing them to the city by the thousands.
Some black residents are now questioning where the mayor and other city officials’ loyalty lies after seeing the city’s eagerness to support illegal immigrants while it has failed to invest the same amount to help citizens who live and pay taxes in the city, they said.
In an almost four-hour meeting on Friday before the final vote, residents and city officials spoke for and against the funding.
Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez, an advocate for illegal immigration, called those who didn’t support the measure racist.
“What we see today, again, is the bigotry, the bigotry and the ignorance of the same people that are likely going to vote against the very same thing that they claim [to support]: to put $1.2 billion dollars in the poorest areas of the city of Chicago,” Mr. Sigcho-Lopez said, Courthouse News Service reported.
Despite his advocacy for Chicago as a sanctuary city, Mr. Sigcho-Lopez complained to CNN in January that Mr. Abbott’s practice of sending illegal immigrants to Chicago was putting “whole communities at the brink of collapse.”
‘Turned Your Backs on Black Chicago’
In a council meeting on Wednesday, several Chicago residents criticized the proposal to fund illegal immigrants while it continued to ignore black citizens, they alleged.Alderman Chris Taliaferro warned that city leaders have turned their back on the residents of Chicago, stating during the meeting, “We are not taking care of our own. We have all but forgotten the residents on the West Side and the South Side.”
“Seventy million dollars and y'all won’t even put a million dollars in our neighborhoods,” the speaker told the council.
The second speaker, one of the three who supported giving the money to illegal immigrants, said “the migrant crisis a resource crisis,” adding that $70 million was too little.
“And we need vast resources to protect our new community members,” he said as boos from the crowd grew.
“You can fight it as much as you want but these are our neighbors and are now a part of our communities,” he said. “Immigrants are our basis for our future as a city ever since the beginning to now. Immigrants are the lifeblood of the city. We need to support them.”
After several more speakers, the fourth identified himself as homeless.
He criticized the council and accused them of giving funds to new arrivals while ignoring residents who have lived in the city their whole lives and are continuing to struggle.
“Y‘all have turned your backs on black Chicago,” he said. “Y’all are implementing our demise here in the city through financing and budgeting.”
