Chicago City Wire

Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez (D-15th Ward) acknowledged that people who entered the country illegally  are being held in several locations in Chicago without support including the Chicago Police Academy and Chicago Fire Academy. 

Chicago has been receiving busloads of undocumented immigrants since earlier this year.

“True (along with the basement of the Harold Washington Library & a half dozen other locations with no support). Next question,” Lopez told a Twitter user. 

The answer was in support of a Twitter user identified as Area Central Ranger. 

“Could anyone confirm the rumor that illegal immigrants bussed in were housed in the new CPD/CFD academy? They are pushing back the opening because they destroyed the place @CPD1617Scanner @CWBChicago @GayDispatcher @Chicago_Police @MorningAnswer @PaulVallas @RLopez15thWard,” Area Central Ranger asked.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had earlier declared that she would welcome the busloads of immigrants arriving from Texas, which had also sent similar buses to New York and Washington, D.C., each of which had taken in about 8,000 people.  In recent months, buses operated by the Chicago Regional Transit authority have also dropped off groups of immigrants in suburban municipalities where they are said to be staying “indefinitely,” Chicago City Wire earlier reported.

According to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Chicago is the ideal place for people violating the law to enter the country since it is a sanctuary city and won't treat illegal immigrants differently based on their status. Abbott emphasized that the campaign to send immigrants elsewhere was a response to President Joe Biden's position on the "open borders” policy. In a press release, Abbott noted that "President Biden's inaction at our southern border continues putting the lives of Texans- and Americans-at risk and is overwhelming our communities." As the effect of “[P]roviding much-needed relief to our small, overrun border towns, Chicago will join fellow sanctuary cities Washington, D.C. and New York City as an additional drop-off location. Mayor Lightfoot loves to tout the responsibility of her city to welcome all regardless of legal status, and I look forward to seeing this responsibility in action as these migrants receive resources from a sanctuary city with the capacity to serve them."

Writing in The Hill, Tom Homan said Biden’s “open borders” policy is a “betrayal.” “Biden’s open borders are by design. He came into office, signed executive orders and dismantled the immigration system the Trump administration built. The magnitude of this crisis simply cannot be overstated. The floodgates are wide open, and migrants surging to our border know that more likely than not, if they cross over they have a real shot at staying in the United States,” Homan wrote. “At the same time the Biden administration has cut down on prosecuting illegal immigrants by nearly 80 percent. This all but invites more to come. Under Biden’s watch, over 800,000 illegal immigrants have now come into the United States unapprehended — the 'got-aways.' We simply don’t know what criminal types were among them — we do know that just since October, there were 56 people on the terror watchlist among the ones we did apprehend. Biden’s callous disregard for public safety is beyond worrisome.”