Close Menu
  • Home
  • News
    • Local
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Health
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Podcast

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

What's Hot

BlackOut Report On The Cost Of Distorting, Erasing And Suppressing African American Progress Released

OP-ED: The Hollowing Out of America’s Only Agency for Minority Business

‘Back in the Day,’ Black Childhood Was Real, Raw, and Outside

Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
  • Lifestyle
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest Vimeo
The Windy City Word
  • Home
  • News
    1. Local
    2. View All

    Youth curfew vote stalled in Chicago City Council’s public safety committee

    Organizers, CBA Coalition pushback on proposed luxury hotel near Obama Presidential Center

    New petition calls for state oversight and new leadership at Roseland Community Hospital

    UFC Gym to replace shuttered Esporta in Morgan Park

    Four Minute Offense: The Jets Circle the Wagons

    The Four Minute Offense: Jalen Hurts Triumphantly Bounces Back

    HBCU Football Wrap-Up: Tenn. State, FAMU, and Morehouse win on Homecoming Weekend

    Titans and QB Cam Ward are dedicated to two ideals: Growth and Development

  • Opinion

    Capitalize on Slower Car Dealership Sales in 2025

    The High Cost Of Wealth Worship

    What Every Black Child Needs in the World

    Changing the Game: Westside Mom Shares Bally’s Job Experience with Son

    The Subtle Signs of Emotional Abuse: 10 Common Patterns

  • Business

    Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology supplier diversity office to host procurement webinar for vendors

    Crusader Publisher host Ukrainian Tech Businessmen eyeing Gary investment

    Sims applauds $220,000 in local Back to Business grants

    New Hire360 partnership to support diversity in local trades

    Taking your small business to the next level

  • Health

    THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: Hit-and-Run Epidemic Continues to Plague South L.A

    Recognizing World Mental Health Day: How families play a crucial role in suicide prevention

    Denied Care, Divided Nation: How America Fails Its Sickest Patients—and the People Fighting Back

    Unbreakable: Black Women and Mental Health

    A Question of a Government Shutdown?

  • Education

    PRESS ROOM: Application Window Closing Soon for Disney Dreamers Academy at Walt Disney World Resort

    Affirming Black Children Through Books: Stories That Help Them See Their Light

    OP-ED: Thena Robinson Mock: My American History

    How Babies’ Brains Develop

    Head Start Gave the Author an Early Inspiration to Share Her Story

  • Sports

    Four Minute Offense: The Jets Circle the Wagons

    The Four Minute Offense: Jalen Hurts Triumphantly Bounces Back

    HBCU Football Wrap-Up: Tenn. State, FAMU, and Morehouse win on Homecoming Weekend

    Titans and QB Cam Ward are dedicated to two ideals: Growth and Development

    HBCU Football Week 5 Roundup: Jackson State keeps the Good Times Rolling

  • Podcast
The Windy City Word
Local

As Texas plans to resume busing migrants to Chicago on Monday, Mayor Lightfoot blasts Gov. Abbott in letter

staffBy staffUpdated:No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Telegram LinkedIn Tumblr Email Reddit
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest WhatsApp Email

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot sent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott a letter Sunday asking him to halt plans to once again bus migrants to Chicago starting Monday.

Lightfoot’s request and Texas’s apparent plans to imminently resume sending busloads full of migrants come as the city faces mounting pressure from a recent spike in migrant arrivals.

Advertisement

A late-April tenfold increase in migrant arrivals has stretched city resources, forcing many people, including children, to sleep on hard police station floors as they await shelter, Brandie Knazze, commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services, told City Council on Friday.

Chicago has taken in and cared for over 8,000 migrants with no resources of their own since Texas began sending migrants to the city last August, Lightfoot wrote in her letter to Abbott. Many direly needed food, water, clothing and medical care, while others were women in active labor or victims of sexual assault, she added.

Advertisement

“None of these urgent needs were addressed in Texas. Instead, these individuals and families were packed onto buses and shipped across the country like freight without regard to their personal circumstances,” Lightfoot wrote.

Abbott began sending busloads of migrants from Texas to Chicago, as well as other major cities, last fall to protest new arrivals in his state. More recently, the individuals and families arriving from Texas have come to Chicago via plane, according to city officials.

Lightfoot argued in her letter that Abbott and Texas government officials are attempting “to cause chaos and score political points” by not coordinating with other governments. The influx of migrants has compromised Chicago’s ability to take care of newly arriving people, she added.

“We simply have no more shelters, spaces or resources,” Lightfoot wrote.

The alarm Lightfoot sounded in her letter echoed warnings made at the Friday City Council hearing on immigration. At the meeting, Knazze said the city’s immediate solution to the mounting new arrivals is increasing the amount of shelter space, possibly by housing newcomers in decommissioned schools, vacant commercial properties, church properties and Park District facilities.

The number of Chicago migrant arrivals is expected to soon increase even more as a 2020 U.S. policy that tightened border regulations to stem the spread of COVID-19, Title 42, is set to expire May 11, Knazze said.

The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications is developing plans to handle surges following Title 42′s expiration, said Matthew Doughtie, OEMC emergency management services manager.

Afternoon Briefing

Daily

Chicago Tribune editors’ top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon.

The city is already facing a $53 million shortfall on the $124.8 million anticipated cost of caring for newly arriving migrants from the start of the year through June, Chicago budget director Susie Park said at the Friday meeting.

Advertisement

Lightfoot told Abbott that she knows by his actions he doesn’t see or doesn’t care about the trauma the bused migrants have faced “and continue to suffer under the humanitarian crisis you have created.”

“But I beseech you anyway: treat these individuals with the respect and dignity that they deserve. To tell them to go to Chicago or to inhumanely bus them here is an inviable and misleading choice,” she wrote.

She acknowledged the struggles border cities face and called the nation’s migration situation “untenable.” Still, she called on Abbott to not pass on responsibilities to cities outside Texas and instead collaborate on nationwide solutions.

The mayor said she will continue calling on the federal government to share more resources and make policy changes to address migration. She added she’ll also call on emergency funding to be withheld from Texas if the migrant-filled buses chartered from Texas resume.

“But I would rather work with you than against you,” Lightfoot wrote. “Let’s work together to find a real solution. And that real solution will never be the unilateral bussing of migrants to cities like Chicago.”

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Telegram Email
Previous ArticleHigh school students compete in Midwest’s first hydrogen-powered grand prix: ‘Problem-solving is our favorite’
Next Article Employee hurt in knife attack at Chicago Loop Target, police say
staff

Related Posts

Youth curfew vote stalled in Chicago City Council’s public safety committee

Organizers, CBA Coalition pushback on proposed luxury hotel near Obama Presidential Center

New petition calls for state oversight and new leadership at Roseland Community Hospital

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Video of the Week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxFXtgzTu4U
Advertisement
Video of the Week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjfvYnUXHuI
ABOUT US

 

The Windy City Word is a weekly newspaper that projects a positive image of the community it serves. It reflects life on the Greater West Side as seen by the people who live and work here.

OUR PICKS

First-Time Jeep Buyer’s Guide: Is the Electric Wagoneer S Right For You?

2024 GMC Acadia AT4 Off Road Series

@Nissan Kicks: Insane Space & Tech!

MOST POPULAR

THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: Hit-and-Run Epidemic Continues to Plague South L.A

Recognizing World Mental Health Day: How families play a crucial role in suicide prevention

Denied Care, Divided Nation: How America Fails Its Sickest Patients—and the People Fighting Back

© 2025 The Windy City Word. Site Designed by No Regret Medai.
  • Home
  • Lifestyle
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.