Chicago to move migrants from police stations to tent camps before winter under mayor’s plan

By The Associated Press
Charlotte, a Venezuelan immigrant, stands in silhouette holding a baby doll as her family and others take shelter in the Chicago Police Department's 16th District station on Monday, May 1, 2023. Chicago has seen the number of new arrivals grow tenfold in recent days. Shelter space is scarce and migrants awaiting a bed are sleeping on floors in police stations and airports. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Charles Rex Arbogast]

CHICAGO (AP) — Nearly 1,600 migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. will be relocated from Chicago police stations to winterized camps with massive tents under a plan by Mayor Brandon Johnson, according to a report released Thursday.

The relocations will occur “before the weather begins to shift and change,” Johnson said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.

The tents could hold up to 1,000 migrants, he said, and the camps would provide meals and recreational and educational programming.

Sixteen city shelters now house 13,500 migrants, with more arriving every day, at a cost to the city of about $30 million per month the newspaper reported.

Johnson’s administration is working with the state and Cook County to create more shelters to relieve some of the pressure on Chicago, he said.

“These families are coming to the city of Chicago. . . . If we do not create an infrastructure where we’re able to support and, quite frankly, contain these individuals who have experienced a great deal of harm, individuals who are desperate . . . that type of desperation will lead to chaos,” Johnson said.

Earlier this week, several migrants were arrested in separate incidents on suspicion of threatening or battering officers at a police station.

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