Lori Lightfoot pleads with Gov. Abbott to stop sending migrants
Ousted Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot pleads with Texas Gov Greg Abbott to stop sending migrants to Windy City because influx of 8,000 is 'dangerous and inhumane' (despite Lone Star State having 1M crossings this year)
- Lori Lightfoot penned the letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Sunday
- She urged him to stop 'inhumane action' of sending migrants to the Windy City
- Lightfoot said Chicago lacks shelters and other resources to accommodate them
By Andrea Cavallier For Dailymail.Com[1]
Published: 15:35, 1 May 2023 | Updated: 15:45, 1 May 2023
Ousted Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has sent a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott pleading with him to stop sending migrants to the Windy City.[2][3][4]
In the letter posted to Twitter[5] on Sunday, Lightfoot urged Abbott to reconsider 'this dangerous and inhumane action.'
She sympathized with the border towns in Texas dealing with the issue, but said it won't be resolved by passing on the responsibility to other cities.
The southwest land border has seen 1,223,067 migrant encounters this year so far and saw 2,378,944 encounters in 2022.
Lightfoot argued that Chicago already has 8,000 migrants to care for and lacks the additional shelters and other resources to fully accommodate more migrants in the city, which she says Abbott is doing for political motivations.
Last fall, Abbott began sending migrant buses to sanctuary cities across the country, including Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C. He has said he will continue to do so until the border is secure.
Ousted Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who lost her re-election bid earlier this year, has sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pleading with him to stop sending migrants to the Windy City
Migrants line up after being detained by US authorities at the US-Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Sunday
Migrants' tents on the US side of the US-Mexico border on Sunday. U.S. authorities have said daily illegal crossings from Mexico could climb as high as 13,000 from about 5,200 in March
On Saturday, shelters in a Texas city struggled to find space for migrants who authorities say have abruptly begun crossing by the thousands from Mexico, testing a stretch of the U.S. border that is typically equipped to handle large groups of people fleeing poverty and violence.
The pace of arrivals in Brownsville, Texas appeared to catch the city on the southernmost tip of Texas off guard, stretching social services and putting an overnight shelter in an uncommon position of turning people away.
Officials say more than 15,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have illegally crossed the river near Brownsville since last week.
That is a sharp rise from the 1,700 migrants that Border Patrol agents encountered in the first two weeks of April, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.
The uptick comes as the Biden administration plans for the end of pandemic-era asylum restrictions.
U.S. authorities have said daily illegal crossings from Mexico could climb as high as 13,000 from about 5,200 in March.
Other cities - some far away from the southern U.S. border - are also grappling with suddenly large influxes of migrants.
In Chicago, authorities reported this week a tenfold increase in the arrival of migrants in the city, where as many as 100 migrants have begun arriving daily and begun sheltering in police stations.
'We are completely tapped out,' she told CNN This Morning on Monday. 'We have no more space. No more resources. And frankly, we're already in a surge.
We've been seeing over the last week two to three -- 200 plus people coming to Chicago every single day.'
Lightfoot stressed that Chicago is a welcoming city, but cannot accommodate the influx of migrants, especially without planning, coordination and cooperation from the Texas governor.
Lightfoot appeared on CNN This Morning to talk about the migrant crisis and her letter to Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott urging him to to reconsider 'this dangerous and inhumane action'
'Chicago is a Welcoming City and we collaborate with County, State, and community partners to rise to this challenge, but your lack of consideration or coordination in an attempt to cause chaos and score political points has resulted in a critical tipping point in our ability to receive individuals and families in a safe, orderly, and dignified way,' Lightfoot wrote.
'Nearly all the migrants have been in dire need of food, water, and clothing and many needed extensive medical care,' she wrote.
'Some of the individuals you placed on buses were women in active labor, and some were victims of sexual assault. 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.'
'I know by your actions that you either do not see or do not care about the trauma these migrants have already faced and continue to suffer under the humanitarian crisis you have created,' she continued.
'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.'
Light said she will continue to call on the federal government for more resources. But urged them to withhold FEMA funding for Texas if Abbott continues to send migrants to Chicago. However, she added that she 'would rather work with you than against you.'
'Governor Abbott, this is not a state v. state or city v. city problem,' she wrote.
'The immigration crisis is a national challenge that requires national collaboration.
For the good of our country and the individuals who are seeking safety in refuge, 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.'
Migrant encounters in February 2023 were at lowest level since 2021 but increased in March
A group of people leave a welcome center for migrants in Brownsville, Texas, on Friday
A Border Patrol vehicle near the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, on Saturday. The city of Brownsville signed a disaster declaration after nearly 15,000 migrants crossed through the area, with many of them screened and released from federal custody into the city
A migrant talks with a US member of the armed forces at the US-Mexico border in Ciudad JuA!rez, Mexico, on Sunday
The reason for the recent increase was not immediately clear. Gloria Chavez, chief of the U.S.
Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley Sector, said migrants have been frustrated by relying on a glitch-plagued government app that can allow them to seek asylum at a port of entry.
'It's a quite concerning because the logistical challenge that we encounter is massive for us,' Chavez added.
Some migrants who crossed this week cited other motivators, including cartel threats that immediately preceded the sudden increment.
Brownsville is across the Rio Grande from Matamoros, Mexico, where a sprawling encampment of makeshift tents has housed about 2,000 people waiting to enter the U.S.
Last week, some tents were set ablaze and destroyed.
Some migrants have said cartel-backed gangs were responsible, but a government official suggested the fires could have been set by a group of migrants frustrated over their long wait.
'It was desperation, the cartel,' said Roxana Aguirre, 24, a Venezuelan migrant who sat outside a Brownsville bus station Friday afternoon. 'You couldn't be on the street without looking over your shoulder.'
Migrants walk towards the US side of the US-Mexico border, in Ciudad, on Sunday
On Sunday, migrants were seen milling next to the fence of the immigration detention center that burned a month ago killing 40 in Ciudad, Mexico
Handprints made by local schoolchildren are displayed on the fence of the immigration center
In downtown Brownsville, families from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and China walked aimlessly, carrying their belongings and talking on their cellphones.
Some waited for their buses while others were in limbo, waiting for relatives before making plans to leave but finding no shelter in the meantime.
One Venezuelan couple said they slept in a parking lot after being turned away at an overnight shelter.
Officials in Brownsville issued a disaster declaration this week, following other Texas border cities that have done the same in the face of suddenly large influxes of migrants, including last year in El Paso.
'We've never seen these numbers before,' said Martin Sandoval, spokesperson for the Brownsville Police Department.
Migrants walk into U.S. custody after crossing the border from Mexico, Ciudad Juarez
Migrants cross the Rio Grande river into the United States from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
The reshuffling of resources at the border - in one of the busiest sectors with robust Border Patrol staffing levels - comes as the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security prepares to end the use of a public health authority known as Title 42, which allowed them to reject asylum claims.
The administration has expelled migrants 2.7 million times under a rule in effect since March 2020 that denies rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Title 42, as the public health rule is known, is scheduled to end May 11 when the U.S. lifts its last COVID-related restrictions.
References
- ^ Andrea Cavallier For Dailymail.Com (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Chicago (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Texas (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ stop sending migrants to the Windy City. (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Twitter (www.dailymail.co.uk)