Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) continued to express his dismay that the sanctuary city is having to pour millions of dollars into taking care of the tens of thousands of processed and released migrants who have illegally crossed into the United States.
Johnson blamed Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s busing program for causing “chaos” for Chicago by offering free transportation to a sanctuary city of the migrants’ choice. Other cities include Los Angeles, New York City, and Denver. The busing program was created to relieve Texas’ border towns from having homeless migrants who did not have the money to purchase a bus or plane ticket after being released by Border Patrol.
“We have brought calm, structure to a very volatile situation,” Johnson asserted to WGN 9.
“But again, this is unprecedented! Unprecedented. Never in the history of the U.S. has a local government been asked to build a resettlement for migrants, but here we are,” he vented.
Since the start of the border crisis under President Joe Biden, 41,000 processed and released migrants have arrived in Chicago. While Texas’ busing program has contributed to those numbers, it does not account for all of the people who have come from the southern border.
Border Patrol data shows the number of illegal immigrants who have managed to avoid apprehension has “exploded” under Biden.
Johnson defended his administration’s approach to the migrant issue, which he says centered around the migrants’ humanity and saving taxpayers money.
Despite the crisis being caused by policies pursued by the Biden administration, Johnson blamed Republicans in Congress and former President Donald Trump for not agreeing with Democrats on their solutions to the border. Democrats’ proposed solutions largely do not include policies to discourage illegal immigrants from crossing the border and instead provide more money to sanctuary cities and NGOs that have helped facilitate the crisis.
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin revealed Border Patrol data shows the number of illegal immigrants who have managed to avoid apprehension has “exploded” under Biden.
In fiscal year 2018, the number of gotaways was 128,679. In fiscal year 2021, that number jumped up to 387,398. In the last fiscal year, the number is was at 670,674.
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Extended Interview: Mayor Brandon Johnson sits down with WGN
Politics
