Abbott to Pritzker "go f-ck yourself"

Dems, you brought this on yourself by literally inviting them to cross after Mr. Mean had slowed illegal crossings to a trickle. Have you ever slowed down the inflow? Told Mexico anyone caught crossing gets immediately shipped back across the border (like the last administration did)? Of course not. I guess you think these folks will eventually be registered lefty voters? Is that your excuse?

As for mercy, Texas has received approx 1.9 million illegals since Joe took office. A miserly 25,000-30,000 have ended up in Chicago. Who should Texas residents plead with for mercy? The Easter Bunny? Certainly, nobody in the Oval Office.

Pritzker urges Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop migrant dropoffs amid winter storm: ‘I plead with you for mercy’

With Chicago temperatures expected to dip to dangerous lows, Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants migrant dropoffs from Texas to stop.

By Tina Sfondeles, Chicago Suntimes

Jan 12, 2024

Gov. J.B. Pritzker reacts during a press conference in the Greektown neighborhood, where Pritzker announced that he signed a disaster proclamation and called on the Illinois National Guard to support over 500 migrants who were sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to Illinois, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Friday, pleading for “mercy” and asking that Texas stop sending migrants to Chicago amid the prospect of dangerously cold weather this weekend.Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday sent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott a sweeping letter about the ongoing migrant crisis, urging him to halt dropoffs during a dangerous winter storm.

“While action is pending at the federal level, I plead with you for mercy for the thousands of people who are powerless to speak for themselves,” Pritzker said in the letter. “Please, while winter is threatening vulnerable people’s lives, suspend your transports and do not send more people to our state.”

Pritzker wrote that sending migrants to Chicago this weekend — when temperatures are expected to reach dangerously low temperatures after several inches of snowfall — will potentially cost lives. Wind chill values are expected to dip to minus 17 degrees on Saturday night.

“Your callousness, sending buses and planes full of migrants in this weather, is now life-threatening to every one of the arrivals,” Pritzker wrote. “Hundreds of children’s and families’ health and survival are at risk due to your actions.”

According to the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, Chicago has received an estimated 34,562 migrants since the dropoffs began. That includes 4,468 people who have arrived on daily flights to O’Hare and Midway international airports since June 2023.

One bus was expected to make dropoffs in the Chicagoland area on Friday, the city said. There are also 408 migrants awaiting placement — with 14,574 people in 28 active shelters.

Migrants won’t get booted from shelters next week, city says, while migrants at ‘landing zone’ stuck on buses as snowstorm hits Chicago

Pritzker’s strongly worded letter accuses Abbott of having “no interest in working on bipartisan solutions to the border crisis because that would put an end to your cruel political game.”

Chicago’s “landing zone” became a temporary shelter for migrants in late December after the city stopped housing them at police stations. As of Monday, it was housing more than 500 people in buses, including over 100 children, as the number of people arriving has outpaced the city’s ability to place them in shelters.

The state on Wednesday opened a new shelter in the Little Village neighborhood, which can accept 220 people.

The influx of migrants — more than 30,000 sent to Chicago from Texas — has also hit the suburbs, where several communities have enacted ordinances to prohibit bus dropoffs.

Pritzker on Wednesday said the state is trying to prevent companies from leasing their planes to the state of Texas. He said he believes the state has deployed a strategy that is deterring the plane dropoffs.

The state has been in contact with airport officials across the state to warn them of the flights, which may be contributing to them ceasing.

“We’re trying to prevent those companies from leasing their planes to the state of Texas. You can’t, in general, you can’t tell a group a people or an aircraft that it can’t come somewhere,” Pritzker said. “On the other hand, there are lots of things that I think would be a significant deterrent and they already are working.”

Last year, the state tried coordinating with bus operators and organizations at the border to try to gauge the timing of dropoffs. Results of that effort were mixed.

Pritzker in October tried to publicly put pressure on the White House to mitigate the crisis, writing in a letter to President Joe Biden that Illinois is in an “untenable situation.” That letter led to more frequent communication between Pritzker’s administration and the White House about the crisis.

An Abbott spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.