January 5, 2024
By: Katie Clancy
While you were enjoying the holidays, you might have missed the news about the continuous busloads of migrants arriving in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.
After getting a taste of what border states like Texas have dealt with and who continue to see record-high border crossings, Mayor Brandon Johson is saying Chicago’s ability to take in these migrants is “unsustainable.”
Seems like an obvious admission, except for the fact that sanctuary city and state policies that both Chicago and Illinois have, and the seemingly open borders policy the Biden administration has embraced, are all why we are in this crisis in the first place.
Blue state governors and mayors from non-border states celebrated sanctuary status with press conferences and campaign talking points, assuming the problem would never hit home.
All that has changed now.
Back in November, Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) released a scathing report that found the state had already spent over $700 million on the migrant crisis since August 2022.
The City of Chicago has spent $138 million only in the last few months.
Mayor Johnson is right, this crisis is unsustainable. And one-off payments from the federal government aren’t going to solve the problem either. That’s not a plan.
Years of nice-sounding talking points are what got us here. Now, mayors and governors who once championed sanctuary policies must demand that President Biden secure the border once and for all for the physical and financial safety of the state and the country.
Contact your legislators, urging them to stop funding the migrant crisis and focus on providing tax relief and basic government services for working families in Illinois.
