As Chicago continues to see buses of asylum seekers arriving on a daily basis, numerous suburbs are left passing ordinances as they too see drop-offs outside of protocols set by the city.
After Chicago passed an ordinance setting up protocols for the drop-offs, numerous buses have instead dropped off asylum seekers in nearby suburbs, including Kankakee, Westmont and Elburn.
In Elburn, asylum seekers were dropped off this week at a Metra stop, leaving the village scrambling to pass an ordinance to deal with the situation.
“The ordinance would put the obligation on the bus carrier to file an application to use that bus stop for any intercity bus traffic, which is pretty much what everybody else has done,” Village President Jeffrey Walter said.
On Wednesday night, Elburn passed a new ordinance governing how drop-offs of asylum seekers would be handled.
“If they come in unannounced, especially after the train has stopped running, we may not be able to help them,” Administrator John Nevenhoven said. “We don’t have resources for 30-to-50 people in the middle of the night.”
Elburn’s ordinance would oblige the bus carrier to file an application to use that bus stop for any intercity bus traffic, according to officials.
Nevenhoven said that the village is seeking to avoid what happened in suburban Kankakee earlier this month. A bus carrying asylum seekers stopped at a gas station near Interstate 57, with the driver telling passengers were in Chicago.
Many passengers were later seen walking up the interstate, and ultimately they were given shelter.
Chicago Ridge officials also passed an ordinance on Wednesday.
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“The bus company has to get hold of us five days ahead of time, get a permit, and find out where to go and drop, and if they don’t, they could be fined and the bus could be impounded,” Chicago Ridge Attorney Burt Odelson said.
Odelson says that around a dozen suburbs have passed similar ordinances in recent weeks.
“I rep several municipalities. Two emergency passages in the last week, one yesterday, one tonight and another is expected tomorrow,” he said.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he has spoken to dozens of mayors and village presidents about the situation.
“I have a responsibility as mayor of the city of Chicago to continue to organize people and bring our systems together in order to bring some structure and some calm to this humanitarian crisis,” he said.
In Oak Park, the village has welcomed more than 150 migrants, but permanent housing is needed by the end of January, something that other suburbs also have expressed.
“We have no facilities,” Walters said. “Should a bus show up and people not decide to get on the train? We can’t force people to do that if they don’t want to.”
Johnson said that “multiple rogue buses” arrived over the Christmas holiday weekend and dropped off asylum seekers in random locations in violations of safety protocols.
In all, at least 95 buses have been cited in violence of Chicago’s ordinances, with two buses being impounded.
