Chicago City Wire

Chicago Ald. Nicole Lee wrote a letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson to politely sound an alarm about the growing migrant crisis in the 11th Ward, which includes the Bridgeport neighborhood.

Lee wrote that nearly 300 migrants are camped at the 9th District police station near 31st and Halsted Street. Despite efforts of mutual aid volunteers, park district employees, and others cooperating with her office, Lee said the flow of thousands of migrants to the police station has become untenable.

Lee's letter states that the 9th District station has "regularly ranked among the ones with the greatest number of people being 'staged'" while waiting to be placed in shelters.

"Mr. Mayor, the 9th District cannot handle any more migrants at this time. With the number we have currently, we know it is unsafe and unsanitary for the migrants, the police and our community. Our volunteers have done an incredible job, but, as you know, they have full time jobs too," Lee wrote.

Recently, "25 asylum seekers were essentially “evicted” from D9 due to capacity constraints," Lee said in the letter.

The alderman requested a meeting with Johnson to discuss the current situation and a citywide plan for dealing with the influx of migrants that continues to flow into the city.

She requested:

• Having full-time staff at our police districts to perform intake and conduct oversight.
• Leveraging technological tools to help process migrants and inform them of the resources at their disposal to better set them up for success for their new life in our city.
• Hiring a team of canvassers from Chicago to travel to border states to combat false information about what services and resources are available here.
• Developing a playbook for this response with processes and protocols that should be followed at every location new arrivals are being staged, sheltered or housed.

On Wednesday, Johnson said he is planning to travel to the U.S. southern border on a fact-finding mission to determine why there has been a spike in buses sending as many as 50 migrants per trip to Chicago. He said as many as 22 buses were expected on Wednesday, and some are arriving in the middle of the night, ABC 7 Chicago reported.

Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that a busload of migrants was dropped off at Willis Tower.

"[A} bus load of migrants has arrived at Sears (Willis, if you prefer) Tower. Building management was not expecting them, and says they can’t stay in the lobby," Hopkins wrote.