A total of 248 complaints were made by migrants staying in more than 24 Chicago shelters in a recent six-month period, according to a comprehensive report compiled by city officials.
Illegal immigration remains an issue top of mind for Americans, based on a series of recent polling coupled with visits by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump along the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday. While southern border crossings dropped about 42 percent from December to January, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, some major Democratic-run cities are feeling the brunt of months of migration.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, has been joined by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, also both Democrats, in calling for more financial assistance from the federal government and Biden administration to properly shelter the influx of migrants coming into their cities.
A total of 248 complaints were claimed by migrants staying in more than two dozen city-run shelters between June 2023 and January 2024, according to a nearly 500-page report obtained by Chicago NPR organization WBEZ from the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
Newsweek reached out to the office via phone and email for comment.
Complaints varied from racist remarks to objections over bad food and general cleanliness, per the report. Others said they felt like "jail inmates." There were 261 complaints but 13 of them were duplicates.
One woman told WBEZ in Spanish that upon her request for a late-night glass of milk, a shelter staff member purportedly told her to show him her breasts before obliging.
"That person made me let everyone see my private parts and I cried at night because that made me remember a lot of violence that I experienced when I was on the road," said the woman, staying at the Chicago Lake Shore Hotel on South Lake Shore Drive.
Another migrant said he feels "discriminated against" due to his sexual orientation, adding that staff supposedly wanted to remove him from one shelter known as the Social Club in the Loop.
Another migrant at the same shelter said in Spanish: "A worker mistreats all the residents. She calls us bad words, she is racist."
Chicago has welcomed 36,164 new arrivals from the southern border since August 31, 2022. That includes 13,798 migrants who have resettled, 12,068 occupied in shelters, and another 4,635 who are seeking asylum and arrived via airplane since June 2023.
In January, it wasn't migrants but local U.S. citizens who filed lawsuits against the city of Chicago, claiming that their communities have been overrun with migrants and that the fault resides on the shoulders of President Joe Biden—rather than individuals like Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is viewed with favor in his home state but a lightning rod to many outside of the South.
Last month, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that taxpayers in Illinois' Cook County will pay an additional $70 million to aid migrants coming to the Chicago area as part of a joint funding plan "to ensure shelter, wraparound services and healthcare remain available for asylum seekers" sent to the city.
As Illinois welcomes more migrants, it costs upwards of an estimated $321 million to maintain shelter and services this calendar year, on top of previously committed funding.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
