Branding the migrant crisis a “bottomless pit” that threatens to swallow taxpayers, Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) wants to give voters the first opportunity they have ever had to determine whether Chicago remains a sanctuary city.

Beale plans to introduce a resolution asking his City Council colleagues to put a binding referendum on the March ballot, asking this question: “Should the city of Chicago continue to keep its designation as a Sanctuary City?”

If the answer is, “Yes,” the caravans that have brought over 15,000 migrants to Chicago — including 18 busloads, last week, 12 more over the weekend and eight more busloads and two more flights on Tuesday — will continue.

Mayor Brandon Johnson would proceed with plans for the giant tent cities he prefers to call “winterized base camps” to get more than 2,000 asylum seekers off the floors of Chicago police stations and O’Hare and Midway airports before temperatures plummet.

But to get the question on the ballot, Beale first needs 26 alderpersons to vote for it. That won’t be easy in a Council controlled by allies of the most progressive mayor in Chicago history.

Beale knows its an uphill battle, but is determined to stop the bleeding.

“You have people who have been living here their entire lives being denied basic services and goods. Yet we can find this kind of money to basically take it out back, put it in a barrel and burn it up. ... The amount of money we’re spending is absurd,” Beale said.

“If you were to give my ward $40 million or $50 million a year, I could transform my ward. … It would be a different community in a matter of a couple of years. If we can find money for this, why can’t we find money for people who are here paying into the system?”

Natalie Garcia/For the Sun-Times

It’s been 38 years since Mayor Harold Washington issued an executive order declaring Chicago a “sanctuary city,” meaning undocumented people can access city services and live without fear of police harassment or city cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Never once have Chicago voters been asked for their permission, Beale said.

“If the people say ‘Yes,’ so be it. Let’s proceed raising everybody’s taxes. Let’s proceed spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But if we’re going to stop the bleeding, we need to do something different because it’s only going to get worse. Today, it’s $500 million. Tomorrow, it’s $1 billion. Who’s paying for that? The same people who are being denied services.”

Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, dismissed Beale’s resolution as political theater. It would not be an “overnight solution” to the migrant crisis, she said.

“He’s got to get it through the City Council. Get enough signatures to get it on the ballot. Then go through the process with the voters. And then, there’ll be a host of other ... ordinances and state implications that will invalidate it,” she said.

“Since we are a sanctuary state and ... have several pieces of legislation that protect that, he’s basically inviting some type of fight with the state. ... And right now the state, in many ways, is helping us with this situation.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd) is confident his Council colleagues are “wise enough to know this is a right-wing political stunt.”

“Since the mid-80’s, when Mayor Harold Washington ushered in our great city as a welcoming city to migrants, we’ve remained that and we will continue to remain that, despite the anti-immigrant rhetoric, the pro-Trump rhetoric that’s out there,” Rodriguez said.

“If we want our economy to stay strong, we will do everything possible to remain a nation of immigrants and a city of immigrants.”

Rodriguez is equally confident Chicago voters would refuse to send an isolationist message to the world about their melting pot of a city.

“The people of Chicago believe that we should be a welcoming city. I’ve seen so many Chicagoans stepping up to help our migrant brothers and sisters now and in the past and they will continue to do that,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez pointed to countries like Italy and Japan that have aging populations, declining birth rates and workforces that are “not keeping up.”

“They’re having massive economic challenges because of that. I don’t want our [country and city] to be in that space as well. We need migrant labor. We need to figure out how to integrate people more — not shut people out,” he said.

At Wednesday’s Council meeting, Beale also plans to introduce a companion ordinance that would require at least 30 days’ advance notice to a local alderperson, as well as that Council member’s written approval, before a “residential shelter or housing facility for more than 12 individuals” can be located in their ward. The only exceptions would be locations authorized by the full Council.