Chicago community where 97% voted Biden react furiously after finding out 500 migrants are coming

• Residents of Chicago’s South Shore, who largely supported Biden in the last election, are angry to learn that hundreds of immigrants are coming
• Old South Shore High School to become temporary detention center for up to 500 immigrants
• Residents claim the school has not been designated for residential use and that they have not been adequately consulted on the plans.

Chicagoans, who voted overwhelmingly for President Biden in the last election, have expressed anger that hundreds of immigrants being brought into the area are removing long-term residents from waiting lists for housing.

The former South Shore High School will serve as a temporary detention center for up to 500 immigrants, but officials have yet to say how long.

Residents of the heavily Democratic South Shore suburb are speaking out after a lawsuit was filed alleging that the school was not designated for residential use and that residents were not properly consulted about the plan. there is

“We want to overcompensate people who never lived here before for all these resources that are not coming to us now. You have to!” demanded one woman.

“Many of these migrants are abandoned without plans in place to monitor them and house them long-term,” another resident explained.

Residents are particularly outraged by plans to keep immigrants in schools and complain about lack of safety and counseling.

“Why do leaders put unscrutinized non-taxpayers a step further away from the elderly, children and homes we’ve worked so hard to secure, further endangering an already crime-ridden black community? Is it?” asked another outraged resident at a press conference.

“Our community is at war. They are encroaching on our community. We are asking and demanding that such issues be addressed,” said one woman.

“Politically, having more than 500 people in our community would completely wipe out any interest we have,” another person explained.

In the 2020 election, 97 percent of Chicago’s South Shore residents voted for Biden, many of whom are now vehemently protesting the overwhelming influx of immigrants after Title 42 expires.

Earlier this month, residents flocked to the auditorium to hurl similar complaints at local authorities.

“How can you do that without consulting us?” one resident replied.

“Build walls, build boundaries,” cried another.

City employee Nubia Willman tried to defend the plan, but was booed by the crowd.

“The important thing is to really prove that this is a humanitarian crisis and that we are here,” she said.

“This crisis may be an emergency for the City of Chicago, but it is not an emergency for the South Shore community,” said Alderman Michelle A. Harris.

The lawsuit comes days after Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared a state of emergency, saying immigration to Chicago had reached a “breaking point.”

“We don’t have any more space. We can’t stress that enough,” Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot, who made history as the first black woman in a major city and the first gay man, started her final term on Friday.

Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson will take over the city on Monday.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott told Lightfoot on Monday that he would not stop busing immigrants from north Texas to Chicago.

Natasha Dunn, J. Darnell Jones and “South Shore Neighbors” are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in county court Thursday against the city and Chicago Public Schools, according to Block Club Chicago. It’s becoming

“Members of the Black Community Co-op, South Shore voters, and stakeholders are committed to helping the City of Chicago manage and develop safe standards for border-transported immigrant housing,” Dunn said at a press conference Thursday. I’m very disappointed that I can’t do it,” he said.

Attorney Frank Avila also spoke during the conference. “We want refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to come, but the areas they can go to are all over the city. We are not concentrated in one community,” he said.

“We need community participation and community input,” Avila said.

“If we are talking about immigrants and asylum seekers from violent countries, wars and poverty, why put them in areas where they can be more traumatized?”

Many residents have argued that immigrants should be moved to facilities on the North Side, and the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Jones, is of the same opinion.

“Why not Pilsen, Belmont Kuragin, Logan Square, Little Village, South Chicago, South Deering, or Hegevisch?” Communities with a supportive cultural base? Jones said.

More than 8,000 people have traveled north from the border to Chicago on buses since August. In recent weeks, migrants have overwhelmed the lobby of police stations before the city can open shelters.

The declaration that the city is in crisis came as Mr. Lightfoot neared the end of his term. Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson will be sworn into office on Monday, taking over a problem that Lightfoot himself said was likely to get worse.

Earlier this month, Mr. Lightfoot petitioned Texas Governor Greg Abbott to stop shipping immigrants north from Texas.

In a letter posted on Twitter on Sunday, Mr Lightfoot urged Mr Abbott to reconsider “this dangerous and inhumane act”.

She said she sympathized with border towns in Texas grappling with the problem, but shifting the blame to other cities would not solve the problem.