Renewed calls to end Chicago’s sanctuary status ahead of expected migrant surge

With the city of Chicago already spending as much as $1.5 million a day for migrant housing and thousands of new arrivals expected in the weeks ahead, local activist Tio Hardiman is renewing his call for the city to reverse its sanctuary city status.

For the past two years, Chicago has received more than 45,000 foreign nationals from the southern U.S. border, where border communities have been inundated with border crossers. The taxpayer costs for Illinois and the city of Chicago continue with the new state budget that started this month setting aside more than $900 million for health care, housing, food and even legal subsidies.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently went on record with his plan to continue busing people to Chicago, where local law enforcement are prohibited from assisting enforcement of federal immigration laws. Earlier this week, a Chicago City Council committee heard from the budget director they have not budgeted for the expected surge.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was asked about the potential of thousands of more non-citizen migrants being transported to the city leading up to the Democratic National Convention next month.

“We have right now, currently, roughly 5,600 new arrivals that are still in our shelters. Our collective resources are prepared for as many as 15,000 but we certainly hope that Gov. Abbot finds Jesus Christ as his lord and savior and don’t do that,” Johnson said Thursday.

Hardiman said he’s had enough of all the politics coming from both sides.

“The Democrats may be looking at the migrant situation like, in the next two or three years, all those migrants will become registered voters,” he said. “The Republicans are looking from a lens where they're trying to penalize some of the Democratic cities.”

Overall, the city has paid out at least $185 million to care for migrants over the last six months. Hardiman said policies have to change.

“Let’s bring an end to sanctuary cities because the city is not prepared,” Hardiman said.

Hardiman’s calls for the city to reverse course goes back to 2023, when he argued state lawmakers were not doing nearly enough to help the longtime downtrodden residents of the state and that its newfound migrant problem is one wholly created by bad policy.

All the runaway spending sends a clear and irrefutable message, he said.

“The state, city and county have already spent close to … $800 million or more on the immigrant crisis here, and all those resources are going to the illegal immigrants and the resources should be going to those that are already here struggling each and every day,” he said. “The message is going out that elected officials care more about the illegal immigrants than they care about the people that have been there their whole life struggling.”

Through all the back and forth, Hardiman said one thing remains clear to him.

“I'm never going to sit up and agree that we should be a sanctuary city and allow illegal immigrants to come over and receive all the resources in this state and you got people here starving right now,” he said.

The surge of migrants is expected to coincide with the Democratic National Convention that begins in Chicago Aug. 19.