Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday said he continues to have concerns about Chicago’s plan to set up winter tent basecamps for an increasing number of asylum-seekers from South America and suggested officials may seek to offer shelters in unused buildings instead.
After Mayor Brandon Johnson announced last week a one-year, $29.4 million contract with GardaWorld Federal Services to set up a camp, Pritzker’s office said it addressed concerns around “cultural competency” by holding meetings with officials from the company and city.
Pritzker said the city could instead create shelters in existing, unused buildings. He said the federal government could offer buildings, but the state and federal governments haven’t yet identified any.
“I have concerns about it, and we continue to have conversations about it,” Pritzker told reporters after his keynote address at a cannabis business conference in downtown Chicago.
“With a lack of existing buildings to put people in, I know the city has looked at this as one of its options. But I don’t think this is the only option,” Pritzker said.
The state has a contract with GardaWorld through the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, but it’s never been used at the state level, Pritzker said. However, the contract can be used by counties and cities, as Chicago has.
Although GardaWorld is a controversial choice — the company has been accused of mistreating migrant children at the border and labor trafficking — the state has few options for companies that provide emergency services and can construct shelters on short notice, Pritzker said.
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The state already paid $328 million to address the crisis and has been working closely with the city on the crises, Pritzker said. The federal government could offer additional help by reimbursing the state, and could offer help in the form of personnel, such as immigration attorneys and people who help filing paperwork, Pritzker said.
While Pritzker blamed much of the crisis on Southern Republican mayors and governors sending migrants to Chicago as a political stunt, he also addressed the Democratic mayor of El Paso, Texas, who has directed buses of migrants to Chicago.
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“I will say that I think that the mayor of El Paso needs to listen to the cities that he’s sending folks to and to start thinking about whether or not this ought to be spread across the country. Why is he not sending anybody to Idaho, Wyoming?” Pritzker said.
Pritzker said officials are sending migrants to Chicago, not because it’s a sanctuary city or state, but because they know people in Illinois will take care of them and allocate resources.
“But the reality is that states that are controlled by Republicans ought to be offering the same services. We all are immigrants; virtually everybody in the United States is an immigrant. And many people, including my relatives who arrived here 150 years ago, got very little help, but a little bit of help from local social service agencies, like we’re helping to provide for them here in Chicago now,” Pritzker said.
The governor said the state has made grants available to cities that offer buildings to migrants.
Pritzker said it’s not viable to move migrants to rural communities because they lack services.
“Those kids need to go to schools and some of those schools are not big enough to be able to handle the number of kids,” he said.
