By Hannah Davis
FAIR
The Chicago city council last week adopted a new ordinance that imposes penalties on buses carrying migrants if they do not comply with the city’s new restrictions on buses.
Back in November, the Mayor’s transportation office introduced new rules that strictly limited how “unscheduled” bus operators (i.e. buses that do not regularly operate pursuant to a public schedule) could unload passengers. The city also limited the number of buses allowed to drop of migrants to just two buses per hour, from Monday to Friday, between the times of 8:00 am to 5:30 pm. Lastly, the rules provided that all migrants must dropped off at a single, designated landing area downtown. Since that time, the City has initiated 55 lawsuits involving 77 buses accused of violating the regulations.
Now, through the ordinance Chicago adopted last week, the city seeks to add teeth to the regulations. Under the new ordinance, operators of intercity buses may not to allow migrants to disembark unless they get permission in advance from the city and provide city officials with the passengers’ names, and intended destinations. Violations will result in the seizure and impoundment of the bus coupled with a citation to the bus driver by local law enforcement containing a fine up to $3,000. One bus has already been impounded for failing to comply with the new ordinance.
Chicago’s bus policy evolved over Mayor Johnson’s objections to the number of migrants arriving in Chicago since last summer, which his spokesman described as a “rogue, uncoordinated” migrant busing system. Chicago witnessed the arrival of nearly 600 buses transporting migrants, with over 400 entering the city since May. The cumulative effect of the onslaught has seen approximately 25,000 migrant arrivals in Chicago since last August, either through buses organized by states such as Colorado, Florida, and Texas — or independently, utilizing the Biden administration’s Customs and Border Protection charter buses and flights.
While Chicago remains a sanctuary city and claims its longstanding guidelines will continue, the city crafted these new regulations specifically to curtail the flow of the same newcomers its policies were designed to welcome. Ironically, Mayor Johnson lays blame for the migrant surge squarely on Republican governors busing aliens into the Windy City. According to Mayor’s office spokesman Cassio Mendoza, “[Chicago] continues to welcome asylum-seekers but the city cannot safely and efficiently shelter migrants when bus companies, contracted by the State of Texas, flagrantly violate all safety measures that the city has put in place.”
Chicago’s neighboring cities and towns are similarly adopting laws to prevent the migrant buses from coming. Rosemont, led by Mayor Brad Stephens, has empowered local law enforcement personnel to apprehend bus drivers failing to adhere to its new ordinance. The town recently established a fine system which penalizes bus operators $750 for each migrant if the policy is breached. The village of Oak Park is turning away all buses of migrants that arrive with no notice. The president of Oak Park, Vicki Scaman, stated, “We just don’t have capacity to take additional asylum-seekers or migrants that might come.” In contrast, the city of Cicero has adopted a more lenient approach, serving notice to charter companies of the potential consequences of policy violations.
Even with these measures, there is skepticism within Chicago about the efficacy of its new plan. Some, including Alderman Raymond Lopez, expressed dissatisfaction with the city’s overall management of the migrant crisis, questioning the misalignment of the Democratic Party’s promises with their actions. “I think what they’re worried about is that the Democratic Party vocalizes all kinds of things and then does not deliver, actually does quite the opposite,” he said.
Alderman Lopez, together with Alderman Beale and Moore, pushed for a referendum vote on whether Chicago should remain as a sanctuary to migrants, but the City Council voted 16-31 against allowing voters to weigh in during the upcoming March 2024 election. Upset by this decision, Alderman Beale asked of his colleagues, “What are you scared of? The truth?”
The irony of Chicago’s situation lies in the clash between its sanctuary policies and the chaotic reality of open borders. The city is spending hundreds of millions of dollars desperately seeking to manage the influx of unwanted migrants bused in from other states. But rather than repeal its sanctuary policies to discourage migrants from coming, the city has adopted stringent new regulations and launched lawsuits against bus operators. Even if the regulations help improve the predictability of migrant arrivals, it won’t stop them, and the City will still have to address the shelter, food, health care, schooling, and other logistical problems that accompany mass migration. Chicago has hit a roadblock of its own making, leaving everyone frustrated and unhappy.
