Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Michael Loria

Chicago’s migrant tent shelter plans on pause

2023-12-11T14:35:39.114-06:00

“There are no immediate plans for 115th and Halsted,” said mayoral spokesman Ronnie Reese, referring to the Far South Side site in Morgan Park that was the city’s other designated tent shelter.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

After a fraught, failed attempt to pitch a first tent shelter for migrants in Chicago, the city is pausing other efforts to do so, for now.

“There are no immediate plans for 115th and Halsted,” said mayoral spokesman Ronnie Reese, referring to the Far South Side site in Morgan Park that was the city’s other designated tent shelter location after a site in the Brighton Park neighborhood.

Reese attributed the change to the success of other efforts to house migrants that have brought the number camped out at police stations and at O’Hare Airport down from a couple thousand to several hundred.

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“We haven’t retired the idea, but as of right now we’re in much better shape than a few months ago,” Reese said. “We’re doing this without the need for base camps.”

These efforts include a recently announced plan to house migrants in churches and increase assistance at the site where the city first receives migrants to either move them outside Chicago or with local sponsors.

Almost 700 migrants were at police stations and O’Hare Airport Monday, about half as many as when the plan was first announced in early September, and 15 of 22 police stations had been cleared of migrants by Monday, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Timeline of Chicago’s migrant response

Timeline of Chicago’s response to incoming migrants

August 2022: Chicago begins to receive buses of migrants sent from Texas

Jan 12: Temporary shelter for asylum-seekers receives neighborhood backlash

Apr 3: FOP boss files complaint about the city housing migrants in police stations

May 9: Mayor Lori Lightfoot declares a state of emergency amid a new surge of arrivals

Sept 1: Hundreds of migrants stuck at overcrowded O’Hare Airport shelter

Sept 7: Winterized base camps suggested under Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new plan

Sept 20: Federal government announces it will expedite work visa process for Venezuelans seeking asylum

Nov 16: Chicago receives $160 million boost from the state to house and manage influx of migrants

Nov 17: Mayor Brandon Johnson limits shelter stays for migrants under new 60-day shelter rule

Nov 29: ‘Winterized tent’ construction begins in Brighton Park

Dec 1: Mercury, arsenic and other contaminants found at planned migrant tent location, according to environmental study

Dec 5: Gov. J.B. Pritzker stops construction of tents because of toxic chemicals found in soil

The city’s first pick for a tent shelter at 38th Street and California Avenue was nixed last week by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, citing “serious environmental concerns” about the heavy metals and toxic chemicals found at the site.

In announcing its move to halt that plan, the state said it would pivot to brick-and-mortar shelters, including one in Little Village and others at Archdiocese of Chicago properties.

The Southwest Side shelter is inside a former CVS building and is expected to open before Christmas, a state spokesperson said. It’s expected to house 200 people.

Archdiocese properties expected to open soon include the former St. Bartholomew School in the Portage Park community that’s expected to open in January and house around 350 people.

Last week, Susan Thomas, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said it was close to securing a lease with the city that would allow for parish properties to be quickly converted into city-run shelters.

Contributing: Tina Sfondeles.

Michael Loria is a staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.

More coverage of migrants in Chicago

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Suit to stop Brighton Park migrant tent site dismissed, for now

2023-12-04T21:29:05.287-06:00

The Brighton Park migrant housing tents on Monday show roofs now covering the shelters. But construction was halted Sunday at the site intended to house newly arrived migrants pending an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency review of a nearly 800-page city consultant’s study that was released Friday night.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

A motion to stop the city from building a tent shelter for migrants in Brighton Park was dismissed by a Cook County judge Monday, as the state already put a halt to it.

However, Judge David Atkins ordered the city to alert the plaintiffs — a group of Southwest Side residents — if construction resumes and said the motion could be reintroduced then.

“That’s the appropriate remedy here since there is no construction going on at this time,” said the circuit court judge.

The plaintiffs originally filed the lawsuit in November alleging the camp — which could shelter 2,000 people — will harm the neighborhood, is not zoned for residential use and toxic soil there could harm people.

Brighton Park migrant site construction halted pending environmental review

Attorney Andrew Worseck defended the city’s use of the site given the city’s responsibility to provide “humanitarian relief to these migrants” and also said the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to bring the motion.

“They have no clearly established right or entitlement to object to the construction of a shelter on this site,” Worseck said. “All that the plaintiffs have are the vaguest of allegations about suspected or reported harm to their property values or the community. That is simply not sufficient.”

The city plans to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit by Friday.

Around 650 migrants were awaiting shelter Monday, according to the city, the fewest number of people since the start of the summer.

More coverage of migrants in Chicago

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Amid city delays, state supplying additional $2M to feed migrants

2023-12-01T21:18:31.513-06:00

Cots for migrants are set up in the Chicago City Life Center Wednesday. The community center and church welcomed about 40 migrants who were previously living at police stations and airports.

Erin Hooley/AP Photos

Citing further “delays” in the city’s procurement process, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration on Friday said it would chip in an additional $2 million to feed asylum-seekers in Chicago through the end of the year.

Another $2 million will be matched by the Chicago Food Depository, which has already been providing meals to migrants since June, in partnership with 15 minority-owned restaurants in Chicago.

It’s the latest in a back and forth between the city and state for resources to shelter, feed and resettle thousands of migrants sent to Chicago, mostly by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has said his state cannot handle a ramp-up in border crossings.

What defines Pritzker-Johnson relationship so far? Tension

The Illinois Department of Human Services said the state stepped in as the city continues to search for additional food vendors. The department attributed the fund shortage to “delays in the procurement process.”

The city in June approached the state, asking for help in providing food for the shelters beginning in July and lasting about 10 weeks. City officials said then they would put out a requests for proposal (RFP) to find a contract that would provide better quality food at a better price. The state, however, has been funding the food since then, according to state officials.

The request for further funding came this week, and the state agreed to help until the end of the year with an understanding the city will assume the cost in January.

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The new funds will go toward food for migrants in shelters and police stations.

Mary May, a spokeswoman from Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said in a statement the deadline for an RFP for the food contract closed on Friday and was delayed because the city received more than 200 questions from applicants. May said the new contract is slated to begin Jan. 15.

It’s unclear who will be funding the food between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15, when the city said its contract would begin. The city did not comment on that gap.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository, with over $10 million from the state plus several million from private donors, has already been providing meals at 20 of the city’s 26 shelters, said Jim Conwell, a spokesman for the nonprofit.

The depository serves lunch and dinner for around 10,000 migrants daily, Conwell said. That includes the majority of the 13,000 migrants in shelters and all those at police stations.

The nonprofit cooks about 2,000 meals at its own facility on the Southwest Side and provides the remaining meals through local restaurants and catering businesses it funds.

The state will also be providing meals at the new shelter sites in Brighton Park and Little Village, which will house up to 2,200 people at full capacity, the department said.

The first tent frames for winterized tent camps first went up on Wednesday for the Brighton Park site. The city has said construction will take just days.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday an environmental assessment of that site — which was found to be polluted with heavy metals — would be released “by the end of the week.”

City officials made the nearly 800-page report public shortly after 8 p.m. Friday.

“The environmental errors that have been ongoing in this city for generations now is something that I get to address, and I’m happy to do it,” Johnson told reporters earlier this week. “I consider this is further proof that I’m committed to environmental justice.”

The state will require the study to be reviewed by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Pritzker in mid-November announced the city would receive an additional $160 million for an intake center, a winterized tent shelter and other help in resettling migrants. That announcement came a day after Johnson passed his first budget, which included just $150 million for migrant arrivals.

Pritzker at the time said the funds were needed to help migrants in temporary shelters as dangerously cold temperatures make their way to the city.

Johnson has also imposed a 60-day shelter stay limit for migrants, following New York City’s lead. The mayor’s office said exceptions will be made for “medical crises or extreme cold weather.”

More than 1,000 migrants remain camped out at O’Hare International Airport and temporary shelters as of Friday, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Chicago begins building tents to house migrants, despite local opposition and health concerns

2023-11-30T15:59:33.162-06:00

Los trabajadores de construcción comienzan a armar la carpa en el sitio de Brighton Park en 3710 S. California Ave. el miércoles 29 de noviembre de 2023.

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times

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Meses después de que el alcalde Brandon Johnson propuso por primera vez “campamentos base” con calefacción para migrantes acampados en las estaciones de policía —quienes ahora están sintiendo el frío de Chicago— el miércoles se levantaron las primeras estructuras de las carpas.

GardaWorld, el controversial contratista elegido para construir las carpas, comenzó a llevar equipos al sitio en el vecindario de Brighton Park esta semana y erigió una estructura a lo largo de California Avenue. Se colocaron marcos adicionales a lo largo de la calle 38th.

La Municipalidad ha dicho anteriormente que la construcción tardará unos días. Se espera que el sitio albergue de inmediato a familias migrantes (un total de 500 personas) y posiblemente llegue a albergar a 2,000 eventualmente.

Se produce cuando casi 1,200 migrantes permanecían acampados en las comisarías de policía y en el Aeropuerto O’Hare el miércoles, según la Oficina de Comunicaciones y Manejo de Emergencias (OEMC, por sus siglas en inglés) de la ciudad.

Esas cifras han disminuido significativamente en las últimas semanas (de 3,300 en las estaciones a mediados de octubre y casi 900 en O’Hare a principios de octubre) y varias estaciones han sido desocupadas.

El campamento ha generado una fuerte oposición de algunos residentes locales que temen que tenga un impacto negativo en el vecindario. Decenas de esos residentes protestaron el miércoles cuando se colocaron los primeros marcos.

El sitio también ha enfrentado la oposición de defensores de los migrantes preocupados por la seguridad de los migrantes albergados en el antiguo sitio de fundición de zinc, que se descubrió que estaba contaminado con metales pesados tóxicos.

En una conferencia de prensa el martes, Johnson dijo que esperaba que el reporte ambiental de la Municipalidad estuviera disponible para el fin de la semana. El portavoz del alcalde, Ronnie Reese, dijo que la mitigación de los contaminantes también se completaría para el fin de la semana.

La Municipalidad y el estado no han publicado detalles sobre cómo será el campamento, aunque la representación en el contrato de GardaWorld de $29.3 millones tenía una apariencia de cuartel.

La carpa estaría equipada con unidades de calefacción para poder calentar las carpas a 70 grados desde los 40 grados, según el contrato.

Michael Loria es reportero del Chicago Sun-Times a través de Report for America, un programa de periodismo sin fines de lucro que tiene como objetivo reforzar la cobertura del periódico de las comunidades de los lados sur y oeste.

Un ejemplo de las unidades de baños portátiles que se podrían instalar en los campamentos base.

City of Chicago

Amundsen Park won’t become migrant shelter; park district programs return

2023-11-30T09:55:42.982-06:00

Twenty-ninth Ward Ald. Chris Taliaferro said Chicago Park District programming will return to the Amundsen field house Monday, along with winter program registration.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file

A plan to turn a West Side Chicago Park District field house into a migrant shelter — which had sparked vociferous opposition — has been abandoned in light of the falling number of migrants staying at Chicago police stations.

Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th) announced Wednesday night that the plan to use Amundsen Park field house in Austin had been called off.

“Residents of this ward, and those that joined from the south and north ends of the city, came together to stand strong in keeping this community asset available to residents,” Taliaferro wrote in a letter to ward residents. “I thank the Mayor and his administration for listening and never closing the door to our conversations.”

Park district staff will return to the field house Monday, along with winter program registration, the West Side alderman said.

Plans to turn the Amundsen Park field house on the West Side into a migrant shelter have been abandoned, 29th Ward Ald. Chris Taliaferro announced Wednesday evening in a letter to residents.

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Opening the shelter was no longer necessary, Taliaferro wrote, given a decreasing number of migrants arriving and other “viable housing solutions.”

The number of migrants camped out at police stations and O’Hare Airport has fallen significantly recently.

About 1,200 migrants were camped out at police stations and O’Hare Airport on Wednesday, according to the city. That’s down from 3,300 at stations in mid-October and nearly 900 at O’Hare in early October.

Construction of the first of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s tent shelters for migrants is also well underway in Brighton Park, and they’re expected to open soon.

The city confirmed the change of plans Thursday, touting the impact of a new partnership with churches to house migrants as well as the “imminent” opening of a state-sponsored shelter in Little Village.

Chicago’s handling of the migrant influx was in a very different place when the plan to turn the West Side field house into a shelter was first proposed.

About nine buses were arriving daily then — compared with three now — and 3,500 migrants were camped out at police stations and O’Hare.

But residents fiercely opposed closing the field house in a community that they said was underserved.

Comedian and West Side native Hannibal Buress even joked about it at a recent show at the Chicago Theatre. Before returning to the city, the performer said he had heard about the migrant crisis but only realized the severity of it when attending Taliaferro’s community meeting at the field house.

After that meeting, residents marched to the mayor’s house in Austin to protest, Buress claimed, and he said he later tried to warn Johnson about the unpopularity of the plan.

Comedian and West Side native Hannibal Buress works the crowd at a show Nov. 2 at the Chicago Theatre. Before returning to the city, the performer said he had heard about the migrant crisis but only realized the severity of it after he attended Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s community meeting at the field house.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Michael Loria is a staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.

More coverage of migrants in Chicago

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Chicago begins building tents to house migrants, despite local opposition and health concerns

2023-11-29T17:36:06.823-06:00

GardaWorld, the controversial contractor picked by the city to build Mayor Brandon Johnson’s “winterized base camps,” has begun pitching the first of its tents in Chicago. Construction workers begin framing the tent at the Brighton Park construction site at 3710 S. California Ave. Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 29, 2023.

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times

Months after Mayor Brandon Johnson first proposed “winterized base camps” for migrants camped out at police stations — now experiencing Chicago’s cold — the first tent frames went up Wednesday.

GardaWorld, the controversial contractor picked to build the tents, began bringing equipment to the site in the Brighton Park neighborhood this week and erected Wednesday a pitched-tent frame along California Avenue. Additional frames were laid out along 38th Street.

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The city has previously said construction will take a matter of days. The site is expected to immediately house migrant families — a total of 500 people — and possibly 2,000 eventually.

It comes as nearly 1,200 migrants remained camped out at police stations and O’Hare Airport on Wednesday, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Those numbers have fallen significantly in recent weeks — down from 3,300 at stations in mid-October and nearly 900 at O’Hare in early October — and several stations have been cleared out.

The camp has drawn vocal opposition from local residents who fear it will negatively impact the neighborhood. Dozens of those residents protested Wednesday as the first frames went up.

The site has also faced opposition from migrant advocates concerned about the safety of housing migrants at the former zinc smelting site, which was found to be polluted with toxic heavy metals.

At a news conference Tuesday, Johnson said he expected the city’s environmental report to be out by the end of the week. Mayoral spokesman Ronnie Reese said mitigation of the contaminants would be completed by the end of the week as well.

The city and state haven’t released specifics of what the camp will look like, though the rendering of the so-called “soft-sided exterior temporary housing” in the $29.3 million GardaWorld contract had a barracks-like appearance.

The tent would be outfitted with HVAC units to be able to heat the tents up to 70 degrees from 40 degrees, according to the contract.

Aerial photo of an example of the kind of structures that could be used in a migrant camp in Chicago.

City of Chicago

An example of the portable toilet facilities that could be used at the “base camps” Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed to house migrants in Chicago.

City of Chicago

A diagram included in a city contract with GardaWorld to build migrant camps shows the layout of a camp capable of housing up to 900 people.

City of Chicago

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Mayor Brandon Johnson announces new church-city partnership to house migrants

2023-11-28T14:50:03.434-06:00

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday announced the Unity Initiative, which will bring about 20 migrants each to a few local churches for temporary shelter and assistance with services such as legal help, housing and eventually jobs.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Staring down a winter with migrants at police stations or tent shelters, the city announced a new partnership with local churches to house migrants Tuesday.

The program — the Unity Initiative — will bring about 20 migrants each to a few local churches for temporary shelter and assistance with services such as legal help, housing and eventually jobs.

“The model fosters a sense of family support,” said the Rev. John Zayas, a pastor who piloted the program independently over the last year. “It’s not just housing, it’s hope.”

The West Side pastor and Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the program at Zayas’ church, Grace and Peace Lutheran in North Austin.

The program’s reach is small, beginning with about 100 migrants who will be moved from police stations to churches Wednesday. Seventeen total churches are enlisted to participate, each sheltering 20 migrants, but several are already housing migrants through Zayas’ earlier initiative.

The program will be funded with $350,000 in private donations.

It comes as around 1,300 migrants remain camped out at police stations and O’Hare Airport.

Northwest Side pastor pioneers migrant resettlement program through churches

Those numbers have fallen significantly in recent weeks — down from 3,300 at stations in mid-October and nearly 900 at O’Hare in early October — and several stations have been cleared out.

But many stations remain crowded.

Sandra Brisben Vazquez, a longtime volunteer, said the Ogden District police station is too small for any migrants to stay inside overnight or during the day.

A warming bus comes to the station about 8:30 p.m. until morning, but it’s become so cold that migrants are left in a dangerous situation during the day.

When Brisben Vazquez arrived Monday evening, she recalled the “inhumane” scene she saw.

“They were literally standing outside shaking,” said the downtown nurse, beginning to cry as she spoke. “They showed me their water bottle, saying, ‘We can’t even drink water because it’s frozen.’”

A migrant at the Ogden District police station holds up a frozen water bottle.

Sandra Brisben Vazquez/Provided

She said she opened up her Toyota Sienna as a warming van in the meantime for about eight migrants but didn’t understand how the city was closing some stations while others had people sleeping outside or spending whole days outside.

“I don’t see the logic in the logistics of where they’re placing our refugees,” Brisben Vazquez said. “We have these people sleeping outside like animals. It’s just not right.”

The city did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the West Side police station. Eight of 21 police stations have been emptied. Several have more than 100 migrants.

At the news conference Tuesday, Johnson reiterated the city’s goal of emptying police stations and touted the program as the latest in the city’s changing migrant playbook.

“Timing is crucial; we cannot abandon asylum-seekers and let them go through Chicago’s winter alone,” Johnson said. “This is just one of many creative solutions we’re finding.”

Those other creative solutions include new shelter limits — due to take effect in January — and the migrant tent shelters at 38th Street and California Avenue and 115th and Halsted streets.

GardaWorld — the contractor selected to build the tents — had begun placing base structures at the Brighton Park site Tuesday, mayoral spokesman Ronnie Reese said in a release.

“If there are no complications, erection of the base camp may begin as early as Wednesday, Nov. 29,” Reese said.

Reese said environmental mitigation strategies for the site polluted with heavy metals would continue and are expected to be completed at the end of the week.

Johnson acknowledged at a Q&A session after the announcement that the environmental assessment of the site had not been released. He said he expected it to be out later this week.

Johnson spoke at a podium in front of several pastors already hosting migrants, including the Rev. Jonathan de la O, a participant in Zayas’ program since May; the Rev. Beth Brown, who started her own Faith Community Initiative over the summer that houses more than a dozen migrant families; and the Rev. Chad Bacon, a North Side pastor who has hosted migrants since last year.

Bacon has hosted about 50 migrant family members at the New Life Community Church in Lake View, on and off, since last December, and said Johnson’s initiative offers several advantages.

“The benefit of this program is that a church community won’t stop caring. Even after a job and house are found, they’ll still be invested in these families as they establish life in our city,” Bacon said. “The city has formed a path to welcome people in, and the church can help walk that path through this program.”

Contributing: Fran Spielman

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Chicago is changing its migrant arrivals playbook

2023-11-27T20:16:34.062-06:00

New migrants arrive in Chicago on Friday at a “landing zone” the city has designated near 800 S. Desplaines St.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Two buses arrived in Chicago on Monday — and five over the holiday weekend — at the city’s newly designated “landing zone” for migrants.

Those stepping off the buses and quickly receiving blankets are greeted by nonprofit volunteers and ushered to a table where they can pick up warm clothes.

Usually, the next stop is a police station, to await long-term housing.

Soon, however, the city is aiming to wind down its use of police stations for housing migrants and instead route all arrivals through a migrant intake center they plan to create with $30 million from the state, the newest part of the city’s plan.

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But now, they are dropped off at a new “landing zone” at 800 S. Desplaines St. — near the site of Maxwell Street Market — before being taken to a police station.

Taking advantage of a recent lull in the number of arrivals, the city is making several changes to its migrant policy in hopes of emptying the stations.

The city has opened nine new shelters since mid-September, housing about 5,000 people.

Since a mid-October peak of 3,300 migrants living at police stations, that number has fallen to 1,200, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, and eight stations have been emptied. The number at O’Hare Airport has fallen from an early October peak of nearly 900 to 165 on Monday.

This is partly because of fewer arrivals, with about half as many buses coming to Chicago in November compared to October.

Nearly 26,000 migrants have been bused or flown to Chicago since August 2022. Almost 13,000 remain in shelters.

Thousands have gotten housing through a state rental assistance program and others have found housing on their own.

The first step in the new plan is revamping how migrants are received at the planned landing zone for bus arrivals at Desplaines and Polk streets.

“Rogue buses” dropping off migrants elsewhere in the city or outside designated weekday business hours would be subject to “new regulatory tools,” the city recently said in a release.

“Earlier this fall there were buses that dropped people off after hours with no one to receive them, putting people in harm’s way,” the city said in a statement Sunday. “The ordinance will help prevent this by creating an organized and predictive system that enables the city to be better prepared and holds bus companies and the state of Texas [which has been sending migrants to Chicago] accountable.”

Violators will be fined between $2,000 and $10,00. The city said each bus arriving since Nov. 18 that did not submit a permit application 48 hours in advance will be fined.

City officials said they were looking for a brick-and-mortar site near the landing zone for the intake center, where arrivals could get connected to legal services, medical care and, for those moving beyond Chicago, transportation.

Workers are seen Monday at a site where the city plans to set up a winterized base camp to house up to 1,500 migrants at 38th Street and California Avenue in Brighton Park on the Southwest Side.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Taking tips from New York playbook

The intake center is similar to the site New York officials use for migrant arrivals, a historic Manhattan hotel — dubbed a “new Ellis Island,” according to The New York Times — that Chicago officials recently visited.

Other similar ideas that Chicago has implemented include a 60-day shelter policy and soon-to-be-built tent shelters.

Like in New York, migrants in Chicago can reapply for shelter at the intake center. Not long after those limits were first implemented in New York, more than a hundred migrants began camping outside the center as they waited to reapply.

New York opened a heated tent shelter in mid-November, but some migrants there said cold drafts had left their children shivering, according to reporting by media outlet The City.

Chicago officials touring that site said they were impressed it had no curfews in place nor security aside from migrants carrying badges showing they stayed there.

Protesters stand Monday outside a construction site at 38th Street and California Avenue in Brighton Park on the Southwest Side, where the city plans to set up a winterized base camp to house up to 1,500 migrants.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Brighton Park tent gets boost from state

As Chicago saw its second snowfall of the year, “delivery and staging of equipment” for Chicago’s migrant camp at 38th Street and California Avenue started Monday, according to Ronnie Reese, spokesman for Mayor Brandon Johnson.

The move comes despite continued protests.

There is no firm date for when construction will begin, but environmental mitigation work of the site polluted with heavy metals can continue while work on the camp progresses, Reese said.

Some of the $65 million the state recently announced for migrants in Chicago would be used to build the camp, the state said in a release Monday.

Some of those funds would also be used to build a shelter at 26th Street and Pulaski Road in Little Village, the city said. Since the summer, the state has considered turning a former CVS location at that address into a shelter.

Why fewer buses are coming

More than 400 buses have arrived since Title 42 ended in May — which was also when Johnson was inaugurated and Chicago was awarded the 2024 Democratic National Convention. That’s almost four times as many as in the preceding nine months, according to data shared by the city.

Republican governors such as Greg Abbott in Texas have been busing migrants to Democrat-led cities, including Chicago, to test the limits of so-called “sanctuary cities.”

A woman and two children, new migrants who arrived in Chicago on Friday, are shown bundled in blankets at a “landing zone” the city has designated near 800 S. Desplaines St.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Border crossings peaked in September, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, right before the U.S. announced it would resume deportation flights to Venezuela.

Migration experts say that policy is behind the drop in border crossings.

“Once the Biden administration began to implement removals, many more migrants are likely thinking twice about coming,” said Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst for the Migration Policy Institute.

Plans could help all unhoused in future

The city hasn’t named a location for the intake center, but staff from New Life Centers — the nonprofit arm of a network of local churches — are already out at the landing zone, working to resettle migrants.

Since May, the nonprofit has been helping the city move migrants from shelters into apartments provided through a state rental assistance program and have provided tens of thousands in toiletry and clothing donations to shelters.

In mid-November, they began sending staff down to the landing zone to help city staff determine migrants who want to remain in Chicago and those who want to move on.

New migrants embrace after arriving in Chicago on Friday at a “landing zone” the city has designated near 800 S. Desplaines St.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Matt DeMateo, executive director for New Life, said they ensure all those leaving Chicago have a “legit” sponsor waiting for them. DeMateo said many more recent arrivals also now have a connection in Chicago with whom they can stay.

New Life has long been involved in providing for underserved communities, and DeMateo said some problems new arrivals face are the same problems regular Chicagoans have faced for years.

That has led to frustration among longtime city residents, but DeMateo finds hope in the outpouring of support many have shown for the newcomers.

“The system and plans we’re creating now,” DeMateo said, “are allowing us to build what we’ll need to take care of all the unhoused in Chicago.”

Contributing: Pat Nabong and Ashlee Rezin.

More coverage of migrants in Chicago

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How are migrants finding work? This Venezuelan artist is painting throughout Chicago

2023-11-27T12:05:01.292-06:00

Wilfredo Garcia works on a painting of baseball player Roberto Clemente outside the American Islamic College in Uptown in August.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Wilfredo Garcia didn’t know it then, but he began preparing for his trip across Latin America and to Chicago when he first picked up a pencil and started drawing as a child growing up in the Venezuelan heartland.

Garcia began drawing about age 4, realized his talent and began developing it at about 11, and got his first professional gig — painting the exterior of a small business in his hometown — at 15. He’s been painting nearly every day since.

At 23, he’s already done a number of colorful murals for small businesses near the shelters he’s stayed in around Chicago, peppering North Side storefronts with many views of the Caribbean, Andes and plains of his homeland.

“When I was a kid, I was always a dreamer, but I started humbly in my village,” Garcia said. “When I made it to Costa Rica and started painting, I couldn’t believe it. I never dreamed I would do that, much less here in Chicago.”

Wilfredo Garcia’s work displayed outside Joe’s Food & Liquors, 3626 W. Lawrence Ave., a grocery owned by a Cuban and Colombian couple, where Garcia’s work reflects those backgrounds.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

More than 22,000 migrants have arrived in the city via buses from the border since the summer of 2022, according to city data. Garcia is among thousands fleeing economic and societal ruin in Venezuela. In his short time here, he’s already leaving a bright mark on his new city and country.

He arrived in Chicago a few months ago and soon began picking up jobs near where he was staying at the Albany Park District police station, then by Wilbur Wright College on the Northwest Side — a migrant shelter, briefly — when he moved there and finally at the American Islamic College in Uptown.

It starts with one painting, he said, reflecting on his journey to the U.S. and becoming a full-time painter.

In Albany Park, that was Birrieria el Texcal, 3700 W. Lawrence Ave., an eatery that’s been there for years but whose decoration consisted of its name, blank red walls and photographs of its signature proteins — lamb and goat.

Jose Alejandre stands outside his restaurant Birrieria el Texcal, 3700 W. Lawrence Ave. in Albany Park. Alejandre recalls meeting Wilfredo Garcia when he had recently arrived in town, initially providing him with food to help him get by but eventually commissioning him for the artwork on the storefront.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Garcia gave it a colorful reimagining, trading the on-the-nose prints for a stylized goat, an aquamarine blue for the barn-like red and adding a scene of an idealized Angel Falls, the world’s tallest uninterrupted waterfall found in eastern Venezuela.

Owner Jose Alejandre said Garcia walked into the restaurant in June and shortly began showing pictures of his work. Soon, they agreed on a rate for the birrieria — $1,400 for the three-day job to be split among Garcia and his two assistants who clean and prime the walls.

“He charged less for it so that more people would notice it,” said Alejandre, 35. “That same day he was painting, they started asking.”

Examples of that can be found nearby on Lawrence, such as at Joe’s, a grocery owned by a Cuban and Colombian couple, where Garcia’s work reflects those backgrounds.

While working as directed by business owners, parts of Garcia remain throughout his works: vibrant, magical colors with a uniquely Latin American feel and reverence for nature.

That comes from Elorza, Garcia’s hometown in the Venezuelan Llanos, or plains. It’s a small village but culturally significant for being the home of the country’s folk music.

The town’s stories-high Joropo, or harp, monument commemorates that history, and the village’s hometown hero, Jorge Guerrero, commemorates the Llanos lifestyle in paeans, like Bruce Springsteen celebrating working-class life in America.

“It’s the folkloric capital of Venezuela,” Garcia said.

For Garcia, it comes out in the landscape style he’s been developing since age 11.

Still, as he got older and Venezuela began to crumble, he felt he couldn’t stay.

“The situation got very hard,” he said. “Whatever job you wanted, it was impossible to find, you had to move.”

Wilfredo Garcia strums the cuatro, a Venezuelan instrument. He learned to play back home, where his family enjoys making music after working in the fields.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

He left for Ecuador in 2021, as the country continued down a path of economic depression more severe than almost any other country, especially among those not at war.

In 2020, real gross domestic product in Venezuela declined by 30%, according to an April 2021 report from the International Monetary Fund. The year before, it had declined by 35%. For comparison, most Latin American and Caribbean countries saw a 7% decline in 2020 and a 0.2% increase in 2019.

Beyond his hometown, Garcia began to appreciate how much of a living he could earn painting, and soon he had enough to travel north with some relatives.

Along the way, he left traces of himself in murals painted for businesses in each of the countries he crossed, from a bar in Costa Rica, where he painted the ceiling and stools, to small businesses in Juarez, Mexico, where he crossed the border.

Wilfredo Garcia’s paints and brushes are stored in a bin, waiting to be used in his next work.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

He crossed April 24, 2023, and the next day he had a gig painting an El Paso piñata store.

That’s where Mario Sifuentes, the pastor of a local church, met him. Sifuentes, 46, found Garcia painting the store right when he was looking for a painter for his church, where for years they had relied on a banner out front advertising the space that needed to be replaced almost annually.

“Right here, in El Paso it’s windy, so the banners fly away,” Sifuentes said. Or they got torn. A recent windstorm, he said, tore half the banner down. He took down the rest before the 30-foot-long, 5-foot-high panel could blow into traffic, but after that he decided to replace the banner one more time — costing about $150 — and look for a painter.

That’s when he found Garcia. The young Venezuelan did the job at a discount because it was a church, but again people noticed.

Wilfredo Garcia spends his days painting, as the pants he’s wearing take on a rash of colors like a Jackson Pollock canvas.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

“They were asking for him,” Sifuentes said. “He got referred to do another painting, then suddenly he was doing more paintings here in El Paso.”

Seeing Garcia’s work take off during his brief Texas sojourn reminded the minister why the arrivals should be welcomed.

“There’s very good immigrants that are very talented, and they can do a lot right here in the U.S.” he said. “That’s what we need right here — positive people.”

Now in a shelter in Chicago, with a steady amount of work, the prospect of finding help with housing through the state on the horizon and the hearing for his asylum case slated for 2024, Garcia feels cautiously optimistic about his future.

He spends his days painting, as the pants he’s wearing take on a rash of colors like a Jackson Pollock canvas, and thinks about the techniques he wants to incorporate into his work next.

“God gives some of us talent, but not many take advantage of it,” he said. “If you don’t put in the dedication and discipline, nothing comes of it. You have to be hungry to outdo yourself, to become more.”

Wilfredo Garcia works on a painting of baseball player Roberto Clemente outside the American Islamic College.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

While working as directed by business owners, parts of Wilfredo Garcia remain present throughout his works: vibrant, whimsical colors with a Latin American feel.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Wilfredo Garcia gave the exterior of Birrieria el Texcal, 3700 W. Lawrence Ave. in Albany Park, a new look.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Wilfredo Garcia’s art adorns Joe’s Food & Liquors at 3626 W. Lawrence Ave. in Albany Park.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

READ: More Sun-Times coverage of immigration issues

Migrants, host family to share first Thanksgiving together: ‘Thanks to God we’ve always found good people on our trip here’

2023-11-23T05:30:00-06:00

From left to right, Johan Delgado, Michel Sandoval, Wilmer Morales, Ruth Lamour, and Andres Uzcategu discuss plans for the day at Ruth Lamour’s home in Austin, on Wednesday, November 22, 2023. Ruth Lamour will be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner with her family and migrants from Venezuela that she has been hosting at her home as they find jobs and a place to rent.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Michel Sandoval has never celebrated Thanksgiving before, but Thursday evening she knows exactly what she’ll be giving thanks for — family, good health and all the people who helped her and her partner, Luis Alfonso, in their long journey from Venezuela.

“I’m grateful God has always been with us, hasn’t left us, and thanks to God we’ve always found good people on our trip here,” said Sandoval, 21.

That list includes the family in Mexico that put her and Luis up for a month last spring and Ruth Lamour, an Austin resident who has been hosting Sandoval and other migrants in her house and will be hosting their first Thanksgiving.

Michel Sandoval (center) speaks with Luis Alfonso, Wilmer Morale, and Andres Uzcategu about issues pertaining to Venezuela while at Ruth Lamour’s home in Austin, on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

More than 25,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago in the past year, bused or flown to the city. Without work authorizations, many have been left dependent on the city and others from the Chicago area.

Despite the difficulties they have faced, many are grateful to be here and for the help they have received.

Sandoval and her partner arrived in May and stayed at the Austin District police station for two months. They then moved to a downtown shelter for about a month before briefly moving into a Bellwood home and then Lamour’s home in Austin.

Lamour, a retiree who lives near the Austin station, began hosting migrants at her three-bedroom home in June.

On Thursday, she’s planning to have some of those same migrants join her and her son for a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner.

Ruth Lamour (right) shows a translated message to Wilmer Morales at her home in Austin, on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

“Thanksgiving has always been a big holiday for my family for generations,” said Lamour, recalling dinners at the family home in western Illinois. “I like to go around the table and ask what each person is thankful for and, almost always, it’s family and new friends.”

Lamour met many of the new friends who will join her Thanksgiving Day at the police station when she began volunteering there in May. In addition to Sandoval, Alfonso and another migrant living in the house, she’s expecting a few she knows staying in city shelters and others who have moved into homes near her own.

Since opening up her home, the menu at shared meals, she said, tends to be Venezuelan fare, but for the American holiday they decided to go traditional.

For the 14 people expected to attend, the meal will include two 15-pound turkeys, cornbread casserole, brussel sprouts, salad and multiple pies.

Ruth Lamour pulls out a pumpkin pie that she baked for Thanksgiving dinner at her home in Austin, on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

The pumpkin pie was ready by Wednesday afternoon and she planned to spend the evening peeling apples for apple crisp and potatoes for mashed potatoes and gravy. Her son planned to start cooking the turkeys in the evening, roasting them low and slow overnight in the oven.

Some of the others joining live nearby, including Wilmer Morales, who met Lamour at the Austin station and now lives in the neighborhood with a host he met through Lamour.

“Above all, I’m grateful to be alive,” said Morales, 30, recounting the number of dead bodies he saw on the trip to the U.S., especially in crossing the Darien Gap, a jungle dividing Colombia from Panama, where he said he saw over a dozen dead.

Despite the hardships of the journey, Morales said he would make it again.

Wilmer Morales listens to Andres Uzcategu as he comments on new regulations for money transfers to Venezuela at Ruth Lamour’s home in Austin, on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

“It’s worth it, if you see where we’re coming from,” he said. “In Venezuela there’s no Thanksgiving because there’s nothing on the table.”

Johan Delgado, who moved into Lamour’s home over the summer, said he left his home city of Barinas, Venezuela, after local gangs began to harass and threaten him.

He escaped and made it to Chicago in May.

“Thanks to God for us being here, to meet this woman who is offering us this opportunity to stay here,” said Delgado, 40. “We went through a lot — hunger, mistreatment. I’ve seen people begging for food. But you have to keep going.”

Filing immigration paperwork and keeping up with appointments has been difficult, but at the end of it, he hopes he can have a “stable” life again.

“Sometimes life knocks you down,” he said. “But sometimes it lifts you up too.”

Johan Delgado stands outside as he speaks about his reasons for leaving Venezuela at Ruth Lamour’s home in Austin, on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023.