NBC 5 Investigates filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court Friday against Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration, alleging the City of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications has withheld certain public records related to the migrant crisis.
Over the course of several months, NBC 5 Investigates has reported on conditions inside migrant shelters and environmental concerns at a proposed migrant base camps, as well as chronicled how millions of public dollars have been spent so far on the migrant crisis.
NBC 5 Investigates also filed a series of public records requests seeking copies of documents that provided great detail about the City of Chicago’s operational response, its strategy, as well as conditions inside the city’s migrant shelters.
Those reports were essential to our reporting last month, which found Johnson's administration was aware as far back as October that "overcrowding individuals" inside the city’s migrant shelters put both migrants and shelter staff at "higher risk of contagious illnesses."
Those same records, obtained by NBC 5 Investigates through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, show the city was aware as far back as October that a "lack of space" within Chicago’s migrant shelter system provided "increased challenges" with both placing people and providing "initial healthcare."
The reports emerged as part of a larger NBC 5 Investigates review of thousands of pages of internal city records, which revealed potential gaps in the Johnson administration's approach to addressing the health needs of migrants.
It was during that reporting process that NBC 5 Investigates determined some records might be missing.
"It shouldn’t take a lawsuit to get access to that kind of information, but this administration is increasingly making it impossible for people to get information unless they go to court," said attorney Matt Topic with Loevy & Loevy, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of NBC Chicago. "I think we’ve filed 10 different lawsuits for clients over records about the migrant crisis where the administration is refusing to respond to requests."
What’s not clear is if the records exist at all or if they're being withheld.
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Joe Ferguson, Chicago’s former inspector general now with the Civic Federation, a non-partisan government research group, said anytime a news outlet has to sue for public records, it can impact public trust in government.
"If you don't have [the records], say you don't have it and say why you don't have it. But I think every one of these instances where the media has to file a lawsuit, because by all appearances, there is a hide ball game that is going on, which then raises only more questions,” Ferguson said.
NBC 5 Investigates reached out Friday to the mayor’s office, the city’s law department and OEMC seeking comment. We are still waiting on a response.
Check back as this story could be updated.
