US migrants: 1 year after migrants began arriving by bus load, Chicago struggling to find shelters
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Since Aug. 31, 2022, 13,500 migrants have arrived in Chicago.
In the last year, the sanctuary city has struggled to find shelter for asylum seekers who have been coming by the bus load.
Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez, of the 25th Ward, has been on the frontlines of the crisis from the beginning. He said progress is being made, but it's been slow.
"It was good to see the mayor and the governor calling on the president to take executive order. I think that's a step in the right direction," Sigcho Lopez said. "The governor and the mayor wants to make sure that the executive order allows asylum seekers just like Ukrainian asylum seekers to have work permits."
In the last 12 months, families, including children, have been sleeping on police station floors all across the city.
The number of migrants at police stations has doubled in recent weeks.
The Fraternal Order of Police president recently posted video of overflowing garbage and people sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder, blocking entrances.
"This is absolutely unacceptable and ridiculous working conditions," John Catanzara can be heard saying in the video.
The 1st District Police Station at 18th and State streets was overflowing with asylum seekers Thursday morning. Many are now sleeping on the sidewalk.
And over the past year, tempers have flared as city officials move migrants into shelters inside neighborhoods like Hyde Park.
On Wednesday night, there were angry words and heated confrontations over plans to house migrants at the Chicago Lake Shore Hotel, located at 49th Street and DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
"I don't want them there! Take them someplace else or send them back to Venezuela! I don't care where they go!" one woman said.
"This is a generous city. We are a city of immigrants," another woman said.
Robert Taylor Park sits in Chicago's historic Bronzeville neighborhood, where a behemoth public housing complex of the same name once stood.
The park district building in the area that hosts programs like football had been considered as a possible shelter for new arrivals.
"Let's work together so we can find solutions that work for everybody that don't deepen inequities and they don't put out youth at risk," Bronzeville resident Marjani Williams said. "It's never about an us versus them situation. It's about moving this city forward for people of color, for Black people, for Latinx people, for anybody who has been underserved."
A mile away, dozens of mostly Venezuelan families are sleeping on the floor of the 2nd District Police Station, where a porta-potty and bucket are as close as they come to a shower.
Sofia Cardena has been there for more than two weeks with her 3-year-old and 2-year-old.
She said in Spanish she hopes to find a stable place to live, school for her daughters and work for herself.
Cardena said she understands there are Americans struggling.
She understands struggle. She went on a three-month journey on-foot to the U.S. alone with her girls for a chance at something better.
"It hurts me to know that they have to seek asylum in the first place," West Englewood resident Shavon Freeman said.
