They arrived by the bus load. And later by air. More than 52,000 newly arriving migrants - mostly from the South American countries like Venezuela or Colombia - have come to Chicago over the past two years.
The journey here wasn’t easy.
Neither was the process to house them in America’s third largest city.
There were questions and criticisms over the cost and lack of transparency from City Hall over how hundreds of million of dollars were spent.
To date, the City of Chicago has spent more than $612 million providing emergency shelter and other services.
NBC 5 Investigates found the bulk of that money - nearly $500 million - has gone to two companies:
Kansas-based Favorite Healthcare Staffing, which staffed the shelters and Kentucky-based Equitable Social Solutions, which together with another company, Reloshare, helped identify property owners and turned once-vacant warehouses in Chicago into migrant hotels.
Investigations
NBC 5 Investigates was first to report how Favorite Healthcare Staffing routinely billed the city for 84 hours per week - per staffer, including overtime - rates that city alders called “exorbitant” even after the contract was re-negotiated to lower the hourly costs.
When it came to the buildings-turned-hotels with Equitable Social Solutions, some building owners were guaranteed $150,000 a month if hundreds of migrants remained in their building.
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But that is information the city kept secret - hidden from public view until NBC 5 Investigates found it in an obscure lawsuit.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has repeatedly claimed his administration remains transparent, yet the city withheld information about the migrant mission, including lease agreements with the property owners.
All the while, volunteers and migrants themselves raised concerns about inadequate health care, challenges with getting work permit authorization and housing insecurity.
Last month, the City of Chicago announced it was officially ending its migrant shelter operation and transitioning to what it calls a “one-shelter initiative” - where migrants will have to compete for bed space with other Chicagoans experiencing homelessness.
As a new year begins, there are questions and uncertainty over how a new Trump administration will impact migrants in the city amid promises of a mass deportation operation.
NBC 5 Investigates will continue to examine any new developments.
