Immigrant dies at shelter at shuttered Woodlawn school that stirred controversy

An immigrant died Friday morning at a shuttered elementary school in Woodlawn that’s being used as a temporary shelter, marking the first publicly known death at a city-owned facility since large numbers of immigrants began arriving in Chicago last year.

Officers responded at about 6:15 a.m. to a call of a 26-year-old man who was “foaming at the mouth and unresponsive” at the old Wadsworth Elementary School building, 6420 S. University Ave., according to an alert from the Chicago Police Department obtained by the Sun-Times.

He was pronounced dead there.

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A police spokesperson didn’t provide any additional information but said detectives were conducting a death investigation, indicating the fatality isn’t thought to be the result of a crime.

Natalia Derevyanny, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office, said an autopsy hasn’t been conducted yet. The man hasn’t been publicly identified because his family hasn’t been notified of his death, she said.

Andris and Jose Duarte didn’t know the man who died, but Jose Duarte, 23, said the death shook him deeply.

“It’s weird because we don’t know what happened,” he said.

The couple from Venezuela arrived in Chicago a few weeks ago with their 5-year-old daughter Leoskylls. The mother and daughter have been staying at a temporary shelter in Piotrowski Park in Little Village, and Jose Duarte has been sleeping at the Wadsworth respite center.

He said he heard about the death from others staying there who said the man was found dead by his roommates when they got up to look for work.

“They tried shaking him several times, but he wasn’t getting up,” Duarte said he was told. “We didn’t even know him, but he’s a human being.”

Johan Ferrer, an immigrant from Venezuela, knew the man who died only in passing but said he was disturbed by the discovery.

“One comes a long way,” said Ferrer, 36. “One comes for a dream. Passing through the jungle and everything, it’s not easy.”

The city is facing a growing immigrant crisis that has led to racially charged public debates over funding to support the influx of arrivals and where to temporarily house them.

Since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began sending immigrants to Chicago by bus and plane last August, more than 8,000 have arrived, mostly from Central America and South America.

The proposal to turn Wadsworth Elementary into a respite center stirred controversy among Woodlawn residents, leading to accusations of racism against some Black residents who opposed the plan.

Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) said the first known death of an immigrant will heighten community concerns.

“I just want to make sure it wasn’t a fight, a shooting or anything like that,” Taylor said. “But it’s a death, so people are definitely going to be concerned. And because it was there, we got to make sure that he wasn’t sick, it wasn’t disease.”

A cathartic and racially charged debate Wednesday in the Chicago City Council left Taylor in tears as she spoke of being torn about supporting the use of surplus funds to house, feed and care for migrants even as the needs of Chicago’s Black residents continue to be ignored.

“Don’t let these tears fool you,” Taylor said during the debate. “When I have these tears, it’s usually because I’m mad as hell, and I want to fight.”

Taylor then declared her intention to vote in favor of $51 million in funding, saying, “It’s the right thing to help other people because, as Black people, that’s what we do. But when the hell are you gonna help us?”

Her colleagues gave her a standing ovation as voices from the gallery could be heard shouting “traitor” and “sellout.”

Taylor is an ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson and the mayor’s choice to chair the City Council’s Education Committee. She said she plans to meet with him Monday to “figure out next steps toward keeping the community and migrants safe.

“We need to be transparent and talk about what’s the real plan to get people taken care of,” Taylor said.

“A lot of that was never discussed with me, nor was it discussed with the community,” she said, asserting that former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration kept key information from her.

She questioned how the shelter at Wadsworth is run and said 500 men were being housed there with just 80 women.

“That’s a recipe for disaster,” Taylor said. “I’m concerned about that. Now, with this death, not really knowing what happened, I’m concerned about the health issues that might be in there.”

She said she’ll urge Johnson to examine “the spaces, how we take care of them and then what actually happens there.”