On Thursday morning, migrants from the U.S./Mexico border awoke in Chicago. They traveled by bus from Texas to Union Station on Wednesday night.
According to the office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, migrants are only taken outside of the state with their express written consent. What other possibilities have been presented to the migrants is unclear. Chicago is now working with New York and Washington, D.C. to help these people start new lives. For some people, it was a genuine joyous reunion.
A mother and father traveled to Chicago from Venezuela with their two young children in search of family and a better life.
According to the mayor’s office, they were some of the almost 60 refugees that arrived in Chicago on Wednesday night. Over 95 individuals, according to Abbott, were initially riding the bus. They came from Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. The journey, according to the man, was terrifying.
William Mijares stated, that they merely left Venezuela, proceeded to Colombia, and went through the bush in Panama they weren’t treated like real people they don’t know why but they treated us like the worst type of people in the world, and that’s how they see us.
Wednesday afternoon, Abbott made the announcement that he had sent the first busload of migrants to Chicago.
Unless they requested permission to broadcast them, the faces of refugees who arrived in the city were obscured by ABC 7 Chicago for their safety.
Abbott attacked Mayor Lori Lightfoot and President Joe Biden in a statement, stating, in part, “President Biden’s inactivity at our southern border is overwhelming our towns and putting the lives of Texans-and Americans-at peril.”
Chicago will join other sanctuary cities as an extra drop-off location to continue providing much-needed relief to little, overwhelmed border towns. Mayor Lightfoot frequently extols the virtues of her city’s need to welcome everyone, regardless of their immigration status, and she eagerly anticipate witnessing obligations put into practice as refugees receive assistance from a sanctuary city with the resources to do so.
The city is pleased to welcome the migrants and give them food, shelter, and security, according to the mayor’s office, but it added, “This is not new; each year, Chicago welcomes hundreds of migrants and offers critical support. Greg Abbot, the governor of Texas, sadly lacks both empathy and shame. However, ever since he instituted these discriminatory expulsion measures, we have been working with our neighborhood partners to get the city ready to welcome these people.”
One woman claimed to be a civil engineer seeking a better life in the United States.
Speaking in Spanish, she said, “It arrived after two months. My entire family remains there. There is no food under the regime. Living off of $2 per month in wages is impossible.”
What happens next for some people is a little less certain.
Governor JB Pritzker expressed his appreciation for the immigrants in a statement, highlighting the fact that his great-grandfather immigrated to this nation in 1881 after escaping Ukraine.
The migrants were transported to a shelter in Chicago by CTA buses after their arrival, and on Thursday morning, they expressed their happiness at being in the city.
While they wait to learn what will happen next, several of them were enjoying the fresh air outside the shelter.
According to statistics from the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the state of Texas has spent more than $12 million busing migrants to Washington, D.C., and New York who entered the state from Mexico.
According to a state spreadsheet that CNN got through a Freedom of Information Act request, as of August 9, Texas had paid Wynne Transportation, the charter company that transports migrants to the two locations, $12,707,720.92.
Abbott’s office stated in a news release on Friday that the busing operation is giving our overburdened border communities much-needed relief.
Due to the “Welcoming City” policy that Chicago passed, all migrants, regardless of their legal status, are protected there. Local police are not required by the city to work with federal immigration authorities.
Written By Dylan Santoyo
Sources
US News: Texas Buses 75 Migrants to Chicago in Political Battle
CNN: The first bus carrying migrants from the US-Mexico border in Texas arrives in Chicago, officials say
ABC 7: Texas busing migrants: Those on bus sent by Gov. Abbott to Chicago want to start new lives
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Jason Lawrence’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Jason Lawrence’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
