Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) sent a letter to the Texas governor asking the state to withhold transportation of more immigrants to her city due to a critical lack of shelter, space and resources.
Lightfoot, in a letter sent Sunday, accused Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of intentionally trying to cause chaos and “score political points” by continually busing migrants across the country without paying attention to the needs of migrants. passengers or coordinate with local officials.
“While I sympathize with the significant challenges facing border cities, this situation is completely unsustainable. The national immigration program will not be resolved by shifting the responsibility to other cities,” he said in a letter shared on social media.
Since August, Chicago has received more than 8,000 Texas men, women and children, creating a “humanitarian crisis,” Lightfoot said.
“Almost all the migrants have been in dire need of food, water and clothing and many needed extensive medical attention. Some of the people he placed on the buses were women in active labor and some were victims of sexual assault,” she said. “None of these urgent needs were addressed in Texas. Instead, these individuals and families were packed onto buses and shipped across the country as cargo without regard to their personal circumstances.”
At a joint City Council committee meeting Friday, Chicago city leaders said they face a $53 million shortfall to handle arriving immigrants who have received no federal assistance from the Federal Resource Management Agency. Emergencies. reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
Lightfoot told Abbott in his letter that he will urge FEMA funding for Texas to stop “if chartered buses continue to come to our city.”
“But I would rather work with you than against you,” he added.
Abbott has said his decision to bus immigrants to Chicago, as well as Washington, D.C. and New York City, is a direct response to President Joe Biden’s “open border policies,” which he said, they have overwhelmed the border communities of their state. The cities he has targeted with these migrant dumping grounds have been identified as “sanctuary cities” which will take in refugees, regardless of their legal status.
In the case of Chicago, has said that you will not inquire about a person’s immigration status, disclose that information to authorities, or deny someone city services based on their immigration status.
Abbott has accused sanctuary cities of promoting lawlessness and has banned them in your state.
Federal officials have acknowledged that there have been unprecedented numbers of migrants arriving at the US-Texas border, as the Western Hemisphere experiences what is being described as “the largest displacement of people since World War II.”
Homeland Security officials have said they are preparing for a heightened level of border encounters once Title 42 expires on May 11. That pandemic-era rule denied asylum to migrants as a means of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
The authorities, in response to this expected increase, announced in february tougher penalties for people trying to enter the US illegally, including those seeking asylum, or those who do not first seek protection in a country they traveled through while en route to the US.
The White House, FEMA, and representatives from the Lightfoot and Abbott offices did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment on Monday.
