Mayor Lori Lightfoot urges Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to halt transports of migrants to Chicago

In a letter sent to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot urged his administration to stop plans to bus migrants to Chicago, calling the move “inhumane” and “dangerous.”

According to the letter, the Texas leader plans to resume busing migrants to cities throughout the United States, including Chicago, starting Monday. With more than 8,000 migrants already arriving into Chicago since August of last year, the mayor wrote in her letter to Abbott, “We simply have no more shelters, spaces or resources.”

Lightfoot further blasted Abbott’s plans and said many of the migrants who had arrived in the city were in dire need of food, water and clothing. In some cases, the mayor added, extensive medical care was needed, pointing to a few incidents in which women in active labor were placed on buses.

“None of these urgent needs were addressed in Texas,” she wrote.

Lightfoot said she was sympathetic to the challenges that border cities face. However, the mayor wrote, “The national immigration problem will not be solved by passing on the responsibility to other cities.”

At a joint City Council committee meeting on Friday, Chicago leaders said the city is currently facing a $53 million shortfall in its attempt to care for the surge in migrants. In 2023, Chicago has received “zero dollars” from the federal government, budget director Susie Park said.

Still, Lightfoot said she would continue to call on the federal government for more resources and support and make policy changes as migrants make their way into the city.

The mayor added that she would also call on emergency funding to be withheld from Texas if the state resumed sending migrant-filled buses.

“I know by your actions that you either do not see or do not care about the trauma these migrants have already faced,” Lightfoot wrote to Abbott. “But I beseech you anyway: treat these individuals with the respect and dignity that they deserve.”