Outgoing Chicago mayor demands Texas governor stop 'inhumane and 'dangerous' busing of migrants

Chicago's outgoing mayor, Lori Lightfoot (D), sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) Sunday demanding he stop busing migrants to the Windy City, WFLD reported.

"I know by your actions that you either do not see or do not care about the trauma these migrants have already faced and continue to suffer under the humanitarian crisis you have created," the letter says in part, adding she believes the busing initiative would be resuming Monday.

Lightfoot goes on to accuse Abbott of engaging in "inhumane and dangerous action" by sending migrants to a number of sanctuary cities. Further, she alleged in the letter that women in "active labor" and people needing "extensive medical care" had been sent to the city.

She claims to have "shouldered the responsibility of caring for more than 8,000 men, women, and children with no resources of their own."

The United States Customs and Border Patrol estimates the number of encounters at the southwest border in the month of March alone was 191,899. For fiscal year 2023, which started October 2022, the figure is 1,223,067.

The outgoing mayor notes in her letter that the city she is charged with running is a "Welcoming City."

On the page addressing immigration on Lightfoot's website for her failed campaign, she outlines multiple measures she undertook with respect to accommodating migrants. For one, she ended police collaboration with ICE and ended ICE access to citywide databases. She also issued an executive order making non-citizen Chicago residents eligible for benefits and services.

In large, bold print, the page declares, "Mayor Lightfoot is committed to making Chicago the most welcoming city in the nation for immigrants and refugees."

That welcome does not include people arriving by bus, it would appear, at least when the mayor has decided the city cannot handle any more people "with no resources of their own."

"I beseech you anyway: treat these individuals with the respect and dignity they deserve."

In a closing coup de grâce, Lightfoot wrote that though the immigration crisis requires "national collaboration," the "real solution will never be the unilateral bussing of migrants to cities like Chicago."

Lightfoot lost her bid for re-election to a second term in a landslide February 28. Her successor, Brandon Johnson, a progressive Democrat, will be sworn in May 15.

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