A plane full of unlawful migrants arrived at an airport outside of Chicago over the weekend as Gov. Greg Abbott continues to manage the influx of people entering Texas unlawfully.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson stated on social media that “a private Boeing 777 originating from San Antonio, Texas landed at the Rockford/Chicago airport carrying 350 asylum seekers.”
“There was no communication from Texas, and the City of Chicago was alerted by authorities in Rockford regarding the flight,” added the mayor.
The City of Rockford also posted an update about the situation in which it stated, “Texas has redirected buses and planes to other nearby cities” and “those onboard will offload and immediately board buses to Chicago’s ‘landing zone.’”
Multiple Chicago suburbs have announced restrictions for buses carrying unlawful migrants in which drop-offs are required at specific locations. Bus companies that choose not to adhere to these guidelines receive fines, as reported by Fox 32 Chicago.
This flight is the second time that Texas has sent unlawful migrants to Chicago by air, with the first plane containing roughly 120 people that were dropped off in the city, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, stated that the flight was in response to Johnson’s failure to “live up to his city’s ‘Welcoming City’ ordinance by targeting migrant buses from Texas.”
In addition to the more than 400 people who have been flown to Chicago, Texas has bused over 28,000 unlawful migrants to the city since August 2022, according to a press release sent to The Dallas Express.
However, data obtained by CBS News Texas reported that only 1% of the unlawful migrants who have arrived in the city since August 2022 have received work permits and Social Security cards.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has processed work permits and temporary protected status applications for only 1,480 of the unlawful migrants who arrived in the city as of December 29.
Of those processed applicants, 284 have received work permits, and 279 have received social security cards, per CBS News Texas.
The lack of approved work permits creates a problematic housing situation for the city, as there is a 60-day limit on how long people can stay in city-operated shelters.
City officials state that there are currently 14,717 people spread across the city’s shelters, with more than half of them nearing the 60-day limit.
This crisis is occurring amidst an influx of unlawful migrants into the U.S., with U.S. Customs and Border Protection reporting more than 300,000 encounters at the southern border in December.
These statistics indicate the highest number of encounters during a single month, breaking the previous record of 269,735 encounters reported in September.