The realities of dealing with effects of illegal immigration have grown so bad in Chicago that there is a move to allow voters to decide whether the city should remain a sanctuary city and continue to spend $40 million a month taking care of illegal immigrants.
However, city officials are also taking actions to stem the tide of immigrants coming into the city.
The Chicago City Council passed an ordinance recently to impound and tow buses transporting illegals that violate new restrictions the council created. In essence, the city would like to still virtue signal and call itself a sanctuary city while discouraging immigrants from coming into the city.
According to the city, more than 25,600 illegal immigrants have been bussed or flown into the Chicago from other states since August 2022. Since May 12, 2023, 484 buses have arrived in the city carrying illegal immigrants. They have arrived primarily on buses Texas governor Greg Abbott has sent from his state to sanctuary states and cities.
Because of the number of buses arriving, the city created safety protocols that require bus companies dropping off people in Chicago to unload at the “designated landing zone” and fill out paperwork “to ensure an orderly process for intaking new arrivals.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson said, “We have put these protocols in place because after being bussed thousands of miles, rogue bus operators are dropping new arrivals in Cicero, Rosemont, Schiller Park, and places other than our designated landing zone. This inhumane treatment further endangers the safety and security of asylum seekers, and adds additional strain to city departments, volunteers and mutual aid partners tasked with easing what is already a harsh transition.”
This logic comes from the same group of people who believe we don’t need a border and that people should be allowed to enter this country wherever and whenever they want.
The new penalties involved with violating the new rules included towing and impoundment of the buses. They are needed because according to the city’s press release, “Buses have attempted to drop new arrivals in the middle of traffic, on random street corners, and at O’Hare Airport.” Buses have also apparently been dropping off immigrants in the Chicago suburbs, which certainly isn’t making those residents happy.
“This inhumane treatment further endangers the safety and security of asylum seekers, and adds additional strain to city departments, volunteers and mutual aid partners tasked with easing what is already a harsh transition,” Johnson said.
What’s the old saying? Don’t kill the messenger.
That’s exactly what this is.
The buses are the messengers delivering the bad news for Chicago. In this case, it’s illegal immigrants. Rather than deal with the root of the problem, which is a lack of enforcement of federal immigration law and the poor city policy of declaring Chicago a sanctuary city, city officials would rather blame the buses. They believe that if they can get rid of the buses, they will get rid of the problem.
Actually, it sounds a lot like the gun-control argument, and all you have to do is look at Chicago and see how well that is working out for them.
Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
