While the Mayors of major Dem Cities like Chicago, LA, & NYC cry in their soup the migrants keep coming by the busload. Eight busloads today, to be specific, a new one-day Chicago record.
Until Joe starts sending folks caught crossing back to Mexico, the hits will keep coming. I guess these guys aren't ready to wake up and smell the coffee. They'd rather spend $18,000 per migrant providing them a temporary tent and heater. Yup, they just provided 1,600 of those last week.
As migrants clash near high-volume shelters, neighbors and businesses grow alarmed: ‘We don’t feel safe’
By Laura Rodríguez Presa
Chicago Tribune
Published: Sep 26, 2023 at 5:00 am
Over the weekend, a fight broke out near the 1,163-resident migrant shelter at the former Standard Club, 320 S. Plymouth Court, just the latest brawl to be caught on camera outside one of the high-population shelters downtown.
With the city buckling under the growing number of migrants — 12 buses carrying 560 more asylum hopefuls arrived this weekend — and no sign of the influx slowing down, tensions among migrants, residents and business owners are reaching a boiling point. The neighbors say they’ve witnessed frequent fights, loitering and other misconduct.
While most told the Tribune they fully support efforts to aid the migrants, they have grown weary of the city’s solution to cram thousands of people into highly trafficked shelters, and they’re concerned about safety — not only for themselves, but for migrants, too.
“I don’t think any of us care that there is a shelter there. It is the fact that there are zero attempts to control the situation and we don’t feel safe here,” said Brandon Vulpitta, the owner of Brando’s Speakeasy, a popular karaoke bar near the shelter on Plymouth Court. “Our clients don’t feel safe anymore.”
To be sure, migrants committing criminal behavior are a fraction of the more than 15,000 migrants who have poured into the city since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bused the first group of asylum-seekers to Chicago last year. Many of the people seeking asylum say they came for a better life.
Though crime stats don’t show a marked difference in and around the areas of high-volume shelters from prior years, the violent altercations and migrants engaging in lewd activity at Pritzker Park, kitty-corner from the shelter on Jackson and Plymouth, are ever present, said George Liakopoulos, owner of several restaurants in the city, including the Plymouth Restaurant & Rooftop Bar, which sits right in front of the shelter.
Most nights, large groups of migrants sit and stand while drinking at the park and harassing female passersby, a scene that he says discourages his patrons from visiting the restaurant, which is known for its location and its unique view of the city. The number of visitors at the restaurant, which is open from 4 p.m. to midnight daily, has drastically decreased, going from 400 to 500 on Thursdays and Fridays in the summer of 2022 to roughly 150 now.
“We want to help and understand the humanitarian crisis but this behavior makes it extremely difficult,” Liakopoulos said. “It’s a big hit. Not just to me, but our employees, (who include) a lot of mothers who depend on this job to feed their family.”
Now, there’s a camera near the shelter and police patrols throughout the day, while shelter staff members pick up the garbage in the park and around the shelter, he said.
People walk past as a police SUV is parked on the grounds of Pritzker Park in the 300 block of South State Street in Chicago on Sept. 5, 2023.
People walk past as a police SUV is parked on the grounds of Pritzker Park in the 300 block of South State Street in Chicago on Sept. 5, 2023. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, outlined his concerns of alleged drug exchange and prostitution at the family shelter being operated at the Inn of Chicago, 162 E. Ohio St., in a letter he wrote to Mayor Brandon Johnson in late June. Hundreds of his constituents and local business owners contacted his office to express their worries, including dirty sidewalks and witnessing migrants engage in physical altercations outside of the shelter.
“I am sympathetic to the new arrivals’ situation and support Chicago being a Welcoming City; however, these are serious concerns that need to be addressed immediately,” Reilly wrote in the June letter.
At the time, the Department of Family and Support Services responded to Reilly’s letter explaining that the newcomers must sign a contract agreeing to shelter rules and promising to be a “good neighbor.” The letter also said that the department was collaborating with other city entities, including the Police Department to address his concerns, which included “specialized patrolling” and recommended beat officers.
But “despite heightened police presence around the facility, the problems persist, especially those times of day CPD cannot be there,” Reilly told Tribune this month.
Maria has been staying at the Inn of Chicago, one of the largest migrant shelters in the city, for several months. Recently, she said, the shelter’s staff held a meeting to warn migrants that if the littering, fighting and congregating did not stop, they could be forced out.
But “some people don’t care; they leave their garbage everywhere, they fight inside and outside the shelter. It’s concerning to us because we don’t want to get kicked out of (the shelter) while we find an apartment to rent,” said Maria, a single mother from Venezuela, who didn’t want to give her last name because she feared repercussions.
“We supposedly came here to become better, to progress,” she said. But allegations of drug use and violent altercations inside and outside shelters are “unfortunately, are true,” she said. “We see it.”
“Es triste, porque por uno pagan todos,” she said, meaning that it saddens her that most migrants who intend to do right may end up paying the price for the wrongful behavior of a few.
[ A year in, Chicago’s migrant crisis exacerbated by City Hall and state delays, hefty contracts and questionable decisions ]
The reports of violence and criminal activity have added another problematic layer to the city’s migrant crisis beyond the immediate needs of shelter and food. While Chicago leaders last week rejoiced at the news that President Joe Biden will grant temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who have crossed into the U.S., advocates cautioned the process will take months to trickle down to the migrants it will benefit.
“The frustration that is being voiced is the same one that you’re hearing form the elected officials here, that in effect, if you don’t have work authorizations, you’re not able to get people to work and find a place to live, then, when you put 200 to 300 people — undocumented or not — in one building with nothing to do, there’s going to be a percentage of them that will get frustrated just being in there and they will go outside in the area and engage in different activities,” said Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, who chairs the City Council’s immigration committee, in an interview with the Tribune.
A cafe window reflects a group of migrants gathered in the 300 block of South Plymouth Court on the edge of Pritzker Park in Chicago on Sept. 5, 2023.
A cafe window reflects a group of migrants gathered in the 300 block of South Plymouth Court on the edge of Pritzker Park in Chicago on Sept. 5, 2023. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
But earnest efforts from migrants who want to find a job and a better life can be overshadowed by reports of migrants loitering, littering and fighting with Chicago residents in public spaces.
Ald. Lamont J. Robinson, 4th, whose ward includes the shelter at the former Standard Club, said that his office has worked directly with the business owners, along with the mayor’s office, police and the shelter staff to ensure “a coordinated and comprehensive approach.”
“As we confront these difficulties head-on, we’re adopting innovative strategies to effectively address the unique issues we’re encountering,” Robinson said in a statement.
A recent change that has helped to manage the situation has been closing the Pritzker Park at 9 p.m. rather 11 p.m. This way migrants are also encouraged to go inside the shelter earlier rather than wait for curfew, said his chief of staff, Sabha Abour.
But as city leaders advocate and wait for federal response, “business will continue to suffer tremendously,” Liakopoulos said. The issue is not the migrants and their search for a better life, but the initial decision by city leaders to place a shelter, with now more than 1,200 people, in the area, losing control of those living in there, he said.
“Though we have been working with the alderman, there is very little he can do,” Liakopoulos added.
The Chicago Police Department declined to comment and referred questions to the mayor’s office. At a news conference last month, Johnson said that his administration is already addressing the concerns by business owners and residents who live near shelters.
“We’re addressing all of it and the number of families that can help grow our economy, quite frankly, that number is endless … what I always say is that it is my responsibility as mayor of Chicago to bring people together and we’re doing just that,” Johnson said.
At the shelters, some of the concerns and allegations of activity outside the buildings have been addressed with residents by hosting meetings and informationals, said Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s deputy chief of staff.
There are “know your rights” workshops and legal support that can help asylum-seekers understand the potential consequences if they are not compliant with their immigration process. There are also training sessions by the Cook County public defender and organizations under the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights where the overall legal system and the criminal process are explained. These sessions are also meant to show migrants that criminal activity can affect their cases, Pacione-Zayas said.
As more migrants arrive in the city, efforts to address reports of domestic violence and other issues inside the shelters have also been strengthened by working with the Department of Family Support Services and its gender-based violence task force, said Rey Wences, the city’s first deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights.
People inside the shelter can also access a grievance report process that allows them to report unsafe or problematic situations. Then DFSS works to address those issues, according to Wences. In some cases, however, “there must be corrections,” to help some migrants understand the city’s regulations, said Pacione-Zayas.
In late July, a group of migrants who had been operating a makeshift barbershop at Pritzker Park were scolded and ticketed by police.
Erendira Rendon, vice president of immigrant justice with The Resurrection Project, spearheaded efforts to welcome migrants in August 2022, when the first few buses began to arrive. She’s worked with the immigrant community in Chicago for more than a decade.
She said the manner and scale in which asylum-seekers are arriving in Chicago is unprecedented, with city leaders and the migrants both facing unique challenges.
The level of stress that the migrants face — allowed in the country legally, but not allowed to work, living in a crowded shelter with no obvious path out, competing for scarce resources — can foster frustration.
They seek ways to distract themselves or cope that may not benefit the city or themselves, Rendon said.
“The issues that are facing the (shelters downtown) are no different than issues that other shelters across the city are facing, where folks live in very unstable conditions, they don’t have homes, their own bathroom or any privacy, so it creates a difficult situation to manage,” Rendon said.
Despite the ongoing patrolling near the Pritzker Park area, on a recent Monday during lunchtime, more than a dozen migrants stood around a man carrying a bright blue cooler, in front of the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago’s Loop.
They were waiting to buy an arepa — a traditional Venezuelan meal — from their fellow asylum-seeker. Most live in a city-run shelter across the street.
“Arepas, arepas,” Angel Nolasco chanted quietly, attempting to avoid attention from police officers who patrolled the area. Though police had approached him earlier to tell him that he could not sell food, he continued.
“We’re not doing anything wrong; what else are we supposed to do?” he asked in Spanish.
But even after police warned Nolasco that he couldn’t sell food at the park because it violated city regulations, he hid behind a wall and continued selling.
“I agree that there are people who aren’t doing the right thing here,” he said in Spanish, as he handed a plate of food to a fellow Venezuelan migrant for $10. “Unfortunately, we all end up paying the price for that.”
Chicago Tribune’s Sam Charles contributed.
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