The city of Chicago continues to struggle to deal with the impact of the border crisis while even more Democratic politicians are contending with how the problem is affecting American citizens. Unfortunately, despite the challenges faced by Chicago and other major cities, this situation is likely going to be the new normal for the time being.
Chicago’s budget committee recently voted to advance a budget proposal requested by Mayor Brandon Johnson, requesting tens of millions of dollars to care for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers who continue to flow into the city.
A Democratic alderman in Chicago warned city leaders that they are neglecting their own citizens by voting to pass Mayor Brandon Johnson’s request for an additional $70 million to help care for migrants who have arrived in the city.
The budget committee voted 20-8 on Monday to advance the proposal to the full City Council after a lengthy debate.
“We are not taking care of our own,” Ald. Chris Taliaferro of the 29th Ward said during the meeting. “We have all but forgotten the residents on the West Side and South Side.”
The city has already allocated $150 million to help with the growing migrant crisis, and other city officials also questioned Johnson’s request for the additional $70 million in funding.
“Here we are begging for more money when we don’t have money for the people here,” said 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale, a Democrat who opposed the proposal. “We don’t have money for after school programs. We don’t have money to help our kids get off the street. Yet, we would just blow money left and right. That’s a fundamental problem.”
The city council is set to vote on Johnson’s request for additional funds on Wednesday. It is clear that even Democrats in the city’s government are not happy about the idea and have criticized the constant push to use taxpayer funds to support the arrivals while also preventing the people from expressing their opinions against this.
Beale has tried and failed repeatedly to put an advisory referendum on the ballot that would have allowed Chicagoans to vent their anger by weighing in on the question of whether or not Chicago should remain a sanctuary city. That’s a status that has made Chicago a political target for Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is largely responsible for sending 39,000 migrants to Chicago since August 2022.
“They vote for us and they send us down here, and then we’re throwing more money out the window on a population of people who are coming here, and they’re living better than the people who are here. They’re getting more resources than the people who are here. That is a huge, fundamental problem for me,” Beale said.
Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th) sang a similar tune, pointing specifically to the still devastated West Side victims of last summer’s record flooding.
“Those that experienced millions of dollars in damage in their homes last year — we have not allocated a dime for them. The senior in my ward that has — not three leaks in a roof but three holes in a roof — we can’t help. … The senior who has a porch falling off the back of her house — all she can get from the city is tickets and more tickets,” Taliaferro said.
“When we have forgotten about the family that lives here, it becomes very difficult or me to support another $70 million going somewhere else. I’m talking residents that are in their 80s and in their 90s who have spent a lifetime giving to this city.”
The effects of the border crisis on Chicago have not seemed to bother Mayor Johnson one iota. Despite the fact that residents are suffering, he insists on spending their hard-earned money to care for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers while maintaining the city’s sanctuary city status.
This puts Chicagoans in an even worse predicament. Not only is the White House derelict in its duty to manage the border, but their mayor appears to be fully on board with the Biden administration’s efforts to import as many foreigners as possible while expecting Americans to pick up the tab for the constant influx of people crossing the border.
This is not going to change anytime soon. The Biden administration has resisted criticisms coming from the right and the left over the border crisis, as has Mayor Johnson. For the time being, this will be the state of affairs until there is a change in the White House.
