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A plane carrying dozens of asylum-seekers arrived at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Tuesday evening, having traveled to the city unannounced from Texas, officials said.
A spokesperson for the city confirmed officials received a call around 7:15 p.m. stating that a "private plane chartered by the Texas Department of Emergency Management" had landed at the airport and left roughly 100 migrants at Signature Flight.
Two people who flew with the plane reportedly fled Signature Flight and left the scene in an Uber before police arrived, the spokesperson said.
The city said the flight originated from El Paso, Texas.
In a statement from Gov. Greg Abbotts' office, his press secretary confirmed Texas is "expanding our operation to include flights to Chicago."
"Because Mayor Johnson is failing to live up to his city's 'Welcoming City' ordinance by targeting migrant buses from Texas, we are expanding our operation to include flights to Chicago, like the Biden Administration has been doing across the country. Governor Abbott launched the border bus mission in April 2022 to provide support to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities as the Biden Administration leaves thousands of migrants in their towns," Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement. "Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue taking historic action to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis.”
The private aircraft’s arrival came one day after Mayor Brandon Johnson repeatedly criticized Governor Abbott while fielding questions from reporters about the death of a five-year-old child who had been living at a migrant shelter in Pilsen.
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“Until we get a handle on what has happened internationally, the city of Chicago, the city of Denver, the city of New York and all these other cities in which this raggedy governor of Texas is shipping people across the world, and particularly against the country; until we get a handle on that, we’re going to constantly have to come up with innovative approaches (to address the migrant crisis),” Mayor Johnson told reporters Monday.
A statement from the White House slammed Abbott's escalation of Texas' practice of sending migrants to sanctuary cities.
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“Yet again, Governor Abbott is showing how little regard or respect he has for human beings. This latest political stunt just adds to his tally of extreme policies which seek to demonize and dehumanize people. Governor Abbott leaves migrants on the side of the road in the dead of winter, installs razor wire making it more dangerous for Border Patrol to do their jobs, and promotes extreme laws that will make communities in Texas less safe. Governor Abbott is not interested in solutions, he only seeks to use people as political pawns. The President has been clear that we need significant policy changes, that our immigration system is broken. That is why on his first day in office he presented Congress with a Comprehensive Immigration Reform plan and that is why he is working to find a bipartisan agreement with Congress that will make a real difference," the statement said.
The city is working to find space in its shelter system for any asylum seekers staying at O'Hare Airport, officials said.
As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, the city reported 14,094 migrants in 27 active shelters, with 314 awaiting placement. In total, more than 26,000 migrants have come to Chicago.
The plane, however, marks a shift from the buses the city has come to expect.
It also follows tragedy surrounding a city shelter that left many questioning.
The death of a 5-year-old migrant boy and reported illnesses in other children living at a Pilsen warehouse retrofitted as a shelter has raised fresh concerns about the living conditions and medical care provided for asylum-seekers arriving in Chicago.
Medical professionals have worried for months about the disjointed healthcare system, saying new arrivals in the U.S. face numerous health issues. For many, the problems are either related to their journey, including trauma, or from living in crowded group settings where infections spread easily and quickly.
Five-year-old Jean Carlos Martinez was a resident at a shelter in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood when he suffered a medical emergency, then was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Comer Children’s Hospital on Sunday afternoon, the city said.
Six more people living in the shelter — four children and two adults — were hospitalized for illnesses this week, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
All had been living in the same shelter as Martinez, whose family arrived in Chicago on Nov. 30, the city said. The cause of death was still “pending” on Tuesday, according to Cook County medical examiner records.
In a statement sent Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office confirmed that the cause of the child’s death remains under investigation – but that the child “does not appear to have died from an infectious disease, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health, and there is no evidence of an outbreak at the shelter. The CDPH team will continue to evaluate the situation.”
City officials also said that the other illnesses do not appear to have originated in the same shelter and “are consistent with ongoing seasonal respiratory trends.”
NBC 5 Investigates reached out to both the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Cook County Health Department with questions about the conditions inside and reports of additional illnesses on Tuesday. So far, neither organization has responded to our questions.
