City Council members on Friday approved $70 million in surplus spending that, with assistance from the county and state, is expected to cover expenses through the end of the year to care for the influx of asylum-seekers sent to Chicago from the Southern U.S. border.
By a vote of 30-18, Council members backed the latest round of funding for a crisis that has highlighted racial divisions in the city, raising questions about committing money to new Latino arrivals without addressing decades of disinvestment in Black neighborhoods on the South and West sides.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) said the measure amounts to “burning money” for “residents who are not paying taxes in the city of Chicago.”
“If you cut off the funding spigot, they won’t come. But as long as we continue to fund this problem, they’re gonna continue to come to Chicago, “ Beale said. “Meanwhile, our families are still suffering. ... Give the South and West Side a billion dollars and see what happens to crime in the city of Chicago. We could do things necessary to make our communities a better place to live.”
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) accused opponents of “bigotry and ignorance,” and argued the city could lobby the federal government to reimburse the cost.
“What we’re saying is our city needs help. ... This $70 million will do just the minimum to prevent chaos,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “Let’s do the minimum to help the people who need it the most.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson initially balked at going back to the City Hall well for the funds, backing out of an agreement in February with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who have committed $70 million and $175 million, apiece from their respective legislative bodies to address the crisis.
Preckwinkle kept her end of the bargain when the county board approved the funds Thursday while the state budget is still being hashed out in Springfield.
Before that, Preckwinkle — the powerful county Democratic Party chair and former alderperson who helped propel Johnson to the mayor’s office — twisted his arm, along with those of other Council members opposed to the spending, lobbying behind the scenes over the last week.
After the vote, Johnson suggested he was doing some arm-twisting of his own, while taking a subtle shot at Pritzker.
“This is the first time that the governor is going before the Legislature to ask for specific jobs. I hope he can get it done, and I am calling state reps and state senators, encouraging them to support it,” Johnson said.
In the first budget of his tenure, Johnson set aside $150 million for the migrant crisis, acknowledging that would cover only a fraction of its costy, but putting the onus on the federal government to step up with significant aid — a gambit that so far hasn’t worked.
Budget officials have said the $70 million will be drawn from the city’s assigned fund balance from 2022 “which was set aside in the event that additional resources were needed to support the new arrivals mission.”
The city has spent at least $310.3 million to shelter migrants since August 2022, according to a city database. Most of the new arrivals are from Venezuela. All are in the country legally as they seek asylum.
The number of migrants arriving in Chicago has waned in recent weeks. Almost 9,000 people were in city-run shelters as of Friday morning, compared to nearly 11,000 a month ago. That’s expected to change closer to the Democratic National Convention in August, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders potentially busing and flying more migrants to Chicago in an effort to stretch city resources to the limit when the spotlight is brightest.
Also on Friday, the Council approved Johnson’s plan to borrow $1.25 billion for housing and economic development programs.
