Migrants Chicago: No asylum seekers living at CPD stations for 1st time in months, city says
Over 3K were staying at Chicago police stations at peak
CHICAGO (WLS) -- For the first time in months, Chicago officials said there are no migrants living at Chicago police stations.
As of Thursday, all police districts were cleared of migrants.
At the peak earlier this fall, more than 3,000 migrants were living in police station lobbies and using tents outside.
Chicago has been moving migrants to shelters and churches, and said there are currently nearly 14,000 living in shelters.
About 220 migrants are still living at O'Hare airport.
Over 26,000 migrants have come to Chicago since they began being bused from Texas.
"I am grateful to City workers, faith leaders and everyone working toward this stage in the new arrivals mission," Mayor Brandon Johnson said. "I also extend gratitude to the police officers across in our districts who continued to perform their duties while managing this humanitarian crisis, as well as the mutual aid volunteers who spent countless hours outside police stations providing care and compassion to asylum seekers."
With temperatures around freezing Monday, new arrivals from the southern border were not seen at Chicago's official landing center.
But they have been arriving to locations other than there.
Johnson called the behavior of bus drivers dropping migrants at random locations "wicked" Monday.
"They are just dropping people off anywhere. Do you understand how raggedy and evil that is? You're just going to put people on a bus and you're going to drop them off in the middle of the night?" Johnson said in an unrelated news conference Monday afternoon.
Last week, a bus was impounded and fined for dropping off migrants without notice.
Since then, the city and organizations working with the new arrivals report there has been no communication about when and where buses are arriving.
Instead, there are reports of bus drivers dropping their passengers off without support or information.
"You are traveling for so long, and you get dropped off in the middle of nowhere. It's very disheartening," said Eduardo Fuentes, director of community care for New Life Centers.
Fuentes said his team assisted some who were left in St. Louis when the bus driver gave them bus tickets to Chicago.
"It's a shame they are putting people's lives at risk. A lot of them don't have any winter gear. You're talking about women and children left out in the cold," Fuentes said.
While the information is lacking, it's clear more new arrivals are expected.
New Life Centers is asking volunteers to help prepare welcome kits this Saturday to help ease that transition. Register to volunteer to get details.
