Three key officials in charge of coordinating the response to the ongoing migrant situation in Chicago met on Monday at City Hall, according to NBC Chicago Political Reporter Mary Ann Ahern.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle both attended the meeting with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson as hundreds of migrants continue to arrive in the city.
Johnson was in Los Angeles over the weekend to attend the African-American Mayor Association meetings, and also attended the Grammy Awards before returning to Chicago on a late night flight, according to Ahern’s reporting.
The mayor met with Pritzker and Preckwinkle for more than an hour to discuss the city’s handling of the situation according to officials, with Pritzker saying that the meeting is part of a “regular” series of talks between the officials.
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“(We were) talking about the asylum seekers and that we’re taking good care of them,” he said.
According to Ahern’s reporting, the last time the three officials met in Chicago was on Jan. 9, with this meeting coming amid rising tensions between the city and state over where new shelters could be situated, as well as the quickly rising costs of sheltering new arrivals.
Pritzker said the meeting was productive and that the three officials got along well during the conversation.
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“(It was) good discussion and planning,” he said. “We’ve been doing this with our staffs for quite some time now, and in regular intervals of meetings with the principals.”
According to the latest figures from Chicago officials, there are 13,442 asylum-seekers currently living in 28 active shelters. There are a total of 41 currently awaiting placement in those shelters, including 34 at the landing zone and four more in Chicago police buildings.
Since Aug. 2022, more than 35,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in the city, with 816 buses having arrived during that time.
Amid those arrivals, there has been some public tension between Pritzker and Johnson over the handling of the situation. Johnson has called for additional help from the state and the federal government, and said that at times the “stress” of the situation has led to some heated moments.
“I don’t know if I would characterize that me and the governor are at odds,” he told NBC Chicago earlier this year. “Look, this is an enormous amount of stress on the entire country. It’s not like the migrant crisis is only happening in Illinois or the city of Chicago.”
The city has been evaluating how to proceed with occupants of shelters, pushing back deadlines for those residents to find other forms of housing.
He told reporters that the state has reduced additional funding for housing assistance and that they need more assistance from Illinois officials.
“The state of Illinois committed to 2,200 beds,” Johnson said. “We could really use those right now.”
Pritzker also said that he was “deeply concerned” about a Chicago decision not to open additional shelters.
“We do not have enough shelter as it is in the city of Chicago,” he said. “The city has told the state where they would like us to put our resources…We can’t help if they don’t identify those locations.”
