Chicago migrants move to Daley College following postponements

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It was late Tuesday afternoon when three CTA buses loaded with some 40 migrant families departed the shuttered West Ridge YMCA, heading toward their new temporary home at Daley College some 24 miles away.

Many of the children here enrolled in nearby CPS schools at the end of the year ,and teachers have been urging the city to let them stay in the community.

But despite their lobbying, the city moved the families to Daley College after two delays. The West Ridge YMCA will be used to shelter single men, who have been sleeping on police station floors.

"I haven't even packed yet," migrant Organis Camacho said, in Spanish, about an hour before the buses arrived.

Camacho said she and her husband remained hopeful that the move, which has been twice delayed by the city since Friday, would not happen at all.

"We were hoping to stay here until our legal processes were complete," Camacho said. "But unfortunately, there is nothing left for us to do."

It's a feeling that was echoed by others in this community, which has been quick to embrace them since they first arrived.

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Victoria Rosario, a teacher from Philip Rogers Elementary who also volunteers at the shelter, said it has been an emotional day.

"It was a hopeful situation over the weekend," Rosario said. "We thought maybe there would be a possibility that they would be able to stay. We're very grateful that the city tried any effort they could to keep them here after hearing the voices of the families, but it is a sad moment."

Officials said during the past week, about 25 percent of the asylum seekers at police stations have been moved to shelters.

"They've integrated into our community so well and felt like neighbors," Rosario said.

While many had expressed a desire to stay, some said they are happy to move.

"We are going to a bigger place," migrant Edgar Roa said, in Spanish. "It's important to follow the rules that have been set up for us. I'm grateful to Chicago and all the help we've been given. We need to make room for the newer arrivals. They need a place to stay, just like we do."

Volunteers brought in suitcases to help the migrants pack their belongings, assuring them and their children that at least some of their teachers will remain with them during the summer months.

"Some of our ESL teachers are going to the South Side school to work with them for summer school, so we're not done today, even if they get on a bus," said Jill Hallett, a Rogers Fine Arts School parent. We're friends with them. You think of all the activities of the last month of school. Field days, field trips, picnics, graduations. They've all been a part of it. A month is a million years in the life of an 8-year-old."

The question is how long will those migrant families remain at Daley College before having to move again. Aug. 1 is the date the city first gave when announcing that it would be used as a shelter. The mayor's office so far not has not commented on either the move or what will happen to these families seven weeks from now.

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This comes as the Biden administration announced it's sending Illinois more than $29 million to help the migrant crisis here.

More than $10 million of that will go to the city of Chicago. The rest will go to state-led programs.