Chicago City Wire

J. Darnell Jones, a resident of Chicago’s South Shore, recently announced that a group of area residents are suing the City of Chicago over plans to use a shuttered high school as a respite city for noncitizen immigrants.

“The South Shore community is a community that has been predominantly comprised of the descendants of once enslaved African Americans,” Jones, one of the suit’s plaintiffs, said at a recent news conference outside the shuttered South Shore High School and quoted by the Chicago Tribune. “The same federally backed tactics that proved detrimental to thriving Black communities of the past under the guise of eminent domain, are being used to house asylum seekers in the heart of our community without our permission, nor our agreement.”

The lawsuit seeks temporary injunctive relief that would prohibit the City from using the shuttered high school—at 7627 S. Constance Ave.—as a temporary respite center, opening the door for hundreds of migrant families into the facility and out of such locations as police stations, park district field houses and a shuttered Streeterville hotel.

The lawsuit, which was formally filed by Jones, fellow South Shore-area resident Natasha Dunn and the South Shore Neighbors community organization, accuses the City of Chicago and the Chicago Park District of being in violation of their lease by seeking to use the school to house the noncitizen immigrants. The plaintiffs and residents further criticize the City for prioritizing the new arrivals over needy families who have long been a part of the South Shore community.

Area residents insisted they recently confronted 8th Ward Ald. Michelle Harris over the issue and were told that she too has been largely kept in the dark about the City's plan. Harris stated that she had found out about the plans for the high school shelter when residents did and only after the decision had been finalized.