Chicago City Wire

On May 23, local Chicago activist Ja’Mal Green tweeted about the upcoming Chicago city council vote on additional funding for the influx of illegal immigrants coming to the Sanctuary City. 

“Chicago, please send a message to your alderman to vote NO tomorrow to approve another 51 million for the migrant crisis," Green wrote. "We are already at 125 million dollars in 4 months. Call Joe Biden! Our communities need that money. 20,000 homeless youth. No mental health facilities. No grocery stores. Lead in our pipes. This is ridiculous!”              

Green continued, "Don’t let them fool you with the 'we can do both' bullshit. If you can do both why haven’t you ever done anything? Black people always lose over and over again. I’m tired of it."

Since August of 2022, the city of Chicago has received over 8200 illegal immigrants from the US-Mexico border. Before she left office, former mayor Lori Lightfoot declared a state of emergency in the city after sending a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbot pleading with him to stop sending buses of immigrants to their community, Chicago City Wire reported. The city’s budget committee also moved forward with an additional $51 million of funding for the problem because they did not receive enough from their requests of FEMA and federal funding options, the story said.

 At the budget meeting, committee chair Susie Park said,  “Generally the funding will be used for shelter costs, staffing, non-congregate rentals, meals, facility operations, legal services, and out-migration and transportation,” Chicago City Wire reported. The bulk of city costs will go towards staffing makeshift shelters to house the growing migrant population.

The Chicago City Council held a meeting on the morning of May 24th to finalize that new budget allocation. This additional funding will only get them through June, given the estimates from their current numbers, according to Chicago City Wire. After that, the city will have to request more federal funding or allocate from its own sources. Only three council members voted against the allocating at the May 9 committee meeting: David Moore, Nick Sposato and Anthony Napolitano.