Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has “welcomed” the migrants who arrived in her city from Texas, and accused the Lone Star State’s authorities of behaving in a “racist” manner over Austin’s migrant busing strategy.
“Chicago is a welcoming city and as such has collaborated across various departments and agencies to ensure we greeted them with dignity and respect. We understand that many are fleeing violent, traumatic, or otherwise unstable environments. We will respond with essential services while these individuals navigate the next steps of their journey and our community partners have been working diligently to provide a safety net,” the Mayor’s Office said in a statement put out early Thursday.
“Unfortunately, Texas Governor Greg Abbot is without any shame or humanity. But ever since he put these racist practices of expulsion in place, we have been working with our community partners to ready the city to receive these individuals. We know that racism, discrimination and human cruelty have played a pivotal role in how immigrants are received within our borders, and we are still working to recover from the previous presidential administration, which encouraged this behavior,” the Mayor’s Office added.
The first two buses packed with migrants were spotted at Chicago’s Union Station on Wednesday evening, with some telling local media that they were expecting assistance upon arrival, but that no one was there to help them.
Governor Abbott released his own press statement Wednesday confirming that the migrants had been delivered to the "sanctuary city."
“In addition to Washington, DC and New York City, Chicago will now be a drop-off location for the busing strategy as part of the governor’s response to President Biden’s open border policies overwhelming border communities in Texas,” the statement said.
“Mayor Lightfoot loves to tout the responsibility of her city to welcome all regardless of legal status, and I look forward to seeing this responsibility in action as these migrants receive resources from a sanctuary city with the capacity to serve them,” Abbott was quoted as saying.
Texas authorities began chartering buses to send migrants from Texas to Washington, DC in April, while New York City was made a second drop-off location in August. Over 8,900 migrants have been bused to the cities using the strategy to date. This week, Texas’ Division of Emergency Management revealed that the Lone Star State had spent over $12.7 million on the program.
Last week, the Pentagon dismissed Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for assistance from the National Guard to help with the migrant influx after Bowser warned that the situation could result in a “prolonged humanitarian crisis.”
Last month, US Customs and Border Protection announced that they expect to record a historic two million+ migrant encounters by the time the current fiscal year ends on September 30.
Border authorities have accused the White House of failing to treat the situation at the southern border with sufficient gravity, slamming White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday over her “ignorant” claim in a Monday press conference that illegal migrants aren’t just “walking across” the border into the US.
“How out of touch can this administration possibly be?” an agent asked Fox News. “There’s only two reasons she said that, and that is either she is extremely dumb or she is flat-out lying and hopes America is so stupid we would believe her,” another agent raged. “18 USC 1001 says it is a federal crime to knowingly make false statements to the US government. Too bad the government is not held to the same standard as the citizenry, and that is assuming [Jean-Pierre] is not dumb but just a liar,” they added. “Has she ever visited the actual border to see for herself what is happening? Nope,” another agent said.
Illegal immigration to the United States via the border with Mexico has surged under President Biden after he scrapped his predecessor’s hardline approach to the issue, halted construction of the Trump border wall, and pledged to reform asylum laws. Biden has also taken flak from the Mexican and Guatemalan presidents over the crisis, with Latin American leaders accusing his administration of deliberately inflating hopes among would-be migrants and incentivizing "coyotes" engaged in the smuggling of human beings and narcotics across the border.