Chaos was the order of the day in the Chicago City Council on Thursday, with a special meeting convened to discuss “sanctuary city” status proceeding in fits and starts amid parliamentary maneuvers and outright hostility.
A group of City Council members was pushing for a referendum in the March 19 election to determine whether Chicago should continue as a “sanctuary city,” but the meeting adjourned with no action taking place on such a measure.
The City Council struggled to meet a quorum to even conduct business on Thursday, with Mayor Brandon Johnson expressing hope that the meeting would not take place. While the City Council did ultimately reach enough members to hold a meeting, debates over how the hearing should proceed ended when council as adjourned Thursday afternoon.
At one point, members of the City Council loyal to Johnson called for a quorum, and when one wasn’t reached, they adjourned the proceedings, turning the lights off and on to encourage people to leave the chambers.
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Ald. Ray Lopez, who is one of the City Council members to support a referendum on “sanctuary city” status, blasted the proceedings as a “despicable” abuse of power.
“In no uncertain terms, this was despicable,” he said. “This was an abuse of power by people who claim to be different, claim to be good government, doing everything they can to stop democracy.”
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, Johnson’s floor leader in the City Council, returned fire, saying that the mayor’s critics failed to prepare for the meeting, and that their concerns and strategy go in the face of the council’s rules.
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“Our sanctuary city policy, which is a public safety policy, has nothing to do whatsoever with the humanitarian crisis,” he said. “They didn’t do their homework. What they wanted was chaos, was demagoguery, and that’s what we got.”
Ald. Anthony Beale, who is offering up the proposal for a referendum, tried to strike a conciliatory tone after the meeting went off the rails.
“I bring this to the floor not to keep Chicago from being a sanctuary city, but to find some compromise to stop the bleeding,” he said.
It remains unclear whether the referendum will go up for a City Council vote. Johnson is in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, meeting with other mayors and President Joe Biden to press for additional funding to deal with the migrant housing crisis in the city.
More than 20,000 migrants have been transported to Chicago since Aug. 2022, with more than 3,300 still awaiting placement in city-run shelters.
