Chicago will begin evicting illegal immigrants from its shelters. City officials announced this Friday that a total of 2,026 people must leave their current shelters before April and the first batch will begin this Sunday when 35 migrants will be evicted from these facilities. They will be followed by another 244 immigrants who will be forced to leave the shelters in March while the remaining 1,782 people will leave throughout April.
The measure comes months later than predicted. NBC News reported that the city announced in November that migrants could only be housed in shelters for 60 days. After this, they will need to find another place to live or return to what is known as Chicago's "landing zone," a place where immigrants go when they first arrive and where they can request relocation to another shelter.
Chicago has postponed the measure three times
The Chicago mayor's office has postponed the policy up to three times, citing the city's typical extreme winter weather. Officials were also concerned about staffing and how advocates and some elected officials would react.
However, the situation is becoming unsustainable. The Chicago Tribune learned there are currently 11,200 immigrants housed in the city, many of them from Texas. The state continues to send buses to sanctuary cities to house migrants. The number has gone down slightly compared to the 14,900 migrants that the city was housing at the end of December. However, there are still still more than the city can take on.
For this reason, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson explained to the local newspaper that the city is implementing this policy due to the unsustainable conditions it is currently facing. However, the city still wants to help migrants:
The ultimate goal is to move people to resettlement or out-migration. What this policy has essentially done, it has given us the opportunity to have real substantive conversations with migrants to help them move on.
