City of Chicago leaders won't enforce limits on migrant shelter stays until later in January, with plunging winter temperatures and the region's coldest conditions in five years expected starting Saturday.
The city previously implemented a 60-day limit for migrants staying at city-operated shelters, but Mayor Brandon Johnson said on Friday that the thousands currently residing at shelters won't have to leave until Jan. 22.
As of Friday afternoon, more than 100 migrants were staying inside tents or warming buses at the landing zone on the city's West Side, which is meant as a temporary drop-off site. Johnson said that the city has not opened any new shelters since late December, and it's adjusting rules on how long migrants can stay.
Johnson said “the harsh reality is there are some limitations on what government can do.”
The mayor held his first media briefing in three weeks on Friday, with the questions focused on the city’s response to the migrant crisis.
As first reported by Capitol Fax, city officials informed lawmakers it is pausing opening new shelters “as the city makes plans to right size budget constraints.”
Johnson told reporters “obviously it’s well documented that we have not opened a shelter since December.”
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"We have $150 million that I’ve appropriated for this mission," he said. "Now, as you all know, we spent $138 million from 2023; I’m going to work hard to stay within the confines of that budget.”
Also, with wind chill values expected to plunge to 30 degrees below zero, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, asking him to hold off on sending more migrants to Chicago - at least for now.
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"You seem to have no interest in working on bipartisan solutions to the border crisis because that would put an end to your cruel political game, but I am writing to you today hoping to appeal to your humanity," Pritzker said, in part.
Next week, Johnson will meet with suburban mayors to ask them to step up and take in migrants — whether that be 20 or 100 people per community.
"This is an international crisis that requires federal intervention, of which local government is subsidizing them," he said. "Never designed to do it, but yet here we are still standing.”
