A contentious debate regarding the city’s migrant crisis continued in City Council on Wednesday as the city seeks more federal help, NBC Chicago’s Bennett Haeberle reports.
CHICAGO – Taking questions for the first time in weeks, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson denied that he and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are “at odds” over how to approach the ongoing migrant crisis.
But the two civic leaders have both publicly criticized each other’s decisions related to housing and additional services for asylum seekers.
“I don’t know if I would characterize that me and the governor are at odds. Look this is an enormous amount of stress on the entire country,” Johnson said. "It’s not like the migrant crisis is only happening in Illinois or the city of Chicago.”
Johnson went on to add that during his recent trip to Washington he discussed with the Biden administration other ways in which cities playing host to migrants could potentially get additional federal funding. He did not provide specifics. Congress has so far seemed unwilling to take up a measure that would address additional funding related to migrants.
More than 34,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since Aug. 2022.
With buses still arriving – albeit a slower pace this week than in recent weeks – and Chicago’s 28 migrant shelters at capacity, it leaves open questions about what and how the city plans to approach the migrant crisis going forward. There are additional questions about what will happen to the nearly 1,900 migrants who potentially face a looming Feb. 1 deadline to leave their current shelter under the city’s 60-day stay limit policy.
Johnson told reporters Wednesday that the policy was the result of a state decision to reduce additional funding for housing assistance.
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He added that the City of Chicago would “work really hard to find as many options as we possibly can” when asked if migrants forced to leave their shelter next week would be relegated to warming buses at the city’s landing zone.
He did not address a follow-up question about if there was a backup plan if there weren’t enough buses.
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“The state of Illinois committed to 2,200 beds,” Johnson said. “We could really use those right now.”
Earlier in the week, Pritzker told reporters he was “deeply concerned” when asked about the City of Chicago’s intention to not open any additional shelters.
“We do not have enough shelter as it is in the city of Chicago,” Pritzker said. “The city has not told the state where they would like us to put our resources...We can’t help if they don’t identify those locations.”
In November, Pritzker pledged $160 million in state funding to help address the migrant crisis – including $65 million that was intended to build a base camp for migrants on a vacant lot in Brighton Park. Those plans were scrapped after the environmental test results revealed the soil was contaminated with mercury and other toxic metals.
Both Pritzker’s office and the Johnson gave conflicting statements over where and how that money would be spent.
Johnson told reporters today: “The state has locations that have been recommended. The state has been in conversations with the Archdiocese,” before later adding that: “shelters do not have to be solely set up and built in the city of Chicago.”
Late Wednesday afternoon, Pritzker's spokeswoman responded late this afternoon to request for comment, saying what the governor said holds true.
"We have not received (shelter) locations from the city but eagerly await them," she said.
