City seeking millions more from state to care for migrants

Four months after buses carrying migrants from Texas began arriving in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is warning the city is about to run out of money to care for them.

In a letter Lightfoot sent last week to state legislators from Chicago, the mayor asks for their help in securing $53.5 million in additional state funding through the end of the fiscal year.

Lightfoot’s plea came just one day after the state informed Chicago it will soon terminate all fiscal support to the city for migrant services. On Dec. 28, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Illinois Department of Human Resources notified the city they have “exhausted all available fiscal resources for the operation of the asylum seeker mission,” and given “the state is at a critical juncture with its operations and finances” cannot support the city’s ongoing costs beyond Jan. 31.

Since the summer, the city and state have provided shelter and other services to about 3,700 migrants, with the state spending over $120 million. As of Dec. 29, when Lightfoot sent her letter, Chicago was running 11 shelters and still providing care for 1,531 migrants, the rest have traveled elsewhere after getting help here.

It should come as no surprise the state’s well is about to run dry. The state doesn’t have unlimited cash. Nor does the city, which in December alone spent $7 million on migrant services. And as one lawmaker told us, budget priorities have to be set. As he put it, “What about the people living in tents who are already here?”

Lightfoot wants Chicago legislators to push for supplemental funding when the Illinois General Assembly returns to Springfield this month. The $53.5 million, the city says in its letter, would be used to support resettlement efforts for thousands of new arrivals, from Feb. 1 through June 30.

But even if the state can find that money — what happens after that?

What’s needed, we think, is for the state, the city, nonprofits and any private donors willing to step up, to come up with a long-term plan that balances humanitarian goals — providing services to those in need — with fiscal responsibility to Illinois and its citizens.

Long term, the funding crisis underscores a point this editorial board has made over the years: Federal lawmakers can no longer put off work on immigration reform. If Congress won’t do that, it will end up costing all of us — including the migrants who will continue to come here seeking a better life.

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