Chicago officials are demanding help from the federal government after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration revealed its plans to fly more migrants into the city, NBC Chicago’s Lexi Sutter reports.
A total of $95 million in COVID-19 relief funds obtained by the city of Chicago will be allotted toward the city's costs associated with assisting the more than 27,000 thousand migrants who have arrived from the southern border.
In a statement issued Friday evening, a spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson's office said the city was able to allocate funds appropriated through the American Rescue Plan Act toward its New Arrivals Mission, noting the move is because of an expected budget surplus in the 2023 fiscal year.
Multiple aldermen told NBC Chicago that Johnson's office informed them of the funding plans at a briefing on Friday.
Chicago previously received a total of $1.887 billion from ARPA's Local Fiscal Recovery Fund in response to the "negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic," according to the city's website. The funds were slated to be used for expenditures incurred from March 2021 through December of 2024.
Since Nov. 2022, the city of Chicago has spent $138 million on costs related to the thousands of asylum-seekers who have been bussed to the city from the Texas/Mexico border, according to a database created by Johnson's office.
The $95 million earmarked toward the New Arrivals Mission will go toward leases for shelters, food, shelter staffing and other expenditures. According to city officials, more than $400 million in ARPA funds have been allocated toward community programs between fiscal years 2024 and 2026. The city doesn't anticipate using those funds for the New Arrivals Mission, the spokesperson said.
As of Friday, more than 14,500 migrants were staying in 27 shelters across the city, according to the latest data from city officials.
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