Chicago will allocate over $50 million to create housing for immigrants arriving in the Windy City from Texas as immigration at the southern border continues to increase.
Since August 2022, over 10,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Chicago after Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) sent buses filled with immigrants to Illinois's largest city on Aug. 31. It was the third Democratic city to receive immigrants from the southern border state.
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On Wednesday, the Chicago City Council approved the use of $51 million in financial aid from the city's budget surplus to address the influx of immigrants. The measure passed 34-13, with aldermen split on whether to use the funds for underfunded neighborhoods or to care for immigrants in Chicago, which is a sanctuary city.
Republicans argued during public comment that funds should not be directed toward addressing immigrant housing.
"We don't know where that money is coming from," said Steve Boulton, Chicago Republican Party chairman, via ABC 7 News. "We are not being told where that money is going to be spent. We are not being told how it is being spent. It is irresponsible for the City Council to appropriate what is no more than stop-gap money that will get us through a month or two and then the problem will still be starting at us in the face."
Springfield approved over $42 million in immigrant aid for the entire state in its news budget, leaving fewer amounts for Chicago and prompting the city to allocate its own funds.
Abbott has continued to send buses of immigrants to several Democratic cities in the last year. The Lone Star State bused almost 20,000 immigrants across the United States after launching the "border bus mission" in April 2022. The mission aimed to alleviate pressure on small border communities and, at the same time, make a political statement regarding the Biden administration's response to the border crisis.
Other cities that have received immigrants besides Chicago are Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Denver, and New York City, as well as Martha's Vineyard. Abbott has since asked governors from across the U.S. to deploy military and police troops to help Texas with immigration at the southern border. GOP-led states, such as Tennessee, Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, and Nebraska, have answered Abbott's call.
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Before her term ended, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot urged Abbott to stop sending immigrants to Chicago, claiming the city lacked the resources to absorb any more arrivals. She had slammed Abbott's policy of transporting illegal immigrants to Democratic-leaning cities as "inhumane and dangerous" and asked him to reverse course.
On May 15, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order that established a new deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant, and refugee rights that is responsible for all "coordination and communication" between city departments and officials involved in immigrant and refugee efforts.