Chicago’s left-wing Mayor Brandon Johnson was scolded online for complaining about the number of immigrants arriving in the Windy City. Johnson took to Twitter on New Year’s Eve to condemn Texas Governor Greg Abbott after he flew hundreds of migrants to Chicago – a self-described “sanctuary city.”
Abbott sent a plane with 350 migrants to Chicago and hired buses to drop them off in the surrounding suburbs. Johnson posted details of the incident online but did not receive a sympathetic response. One person replied, “What did you do with the Sanctuary City funding you received? Never thought you’d actually have to deal with the reality, did you?” Others mocked the Mayor, asking him why he “hates migrants.” Texas Rep. Chip Roy suggested he phone Joe Biden to complain.
Mayor Johnson’s problems escalated in 2023 as record numbers crossed the southern border, and incomers were directed to northern “sanctuary” areas by southern leaders. In September, Greg Abbott sent a busload to Chicago, and a month earlier, he transported several to Los Angeles in the “sanctuary” Golden State. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass labeled him “evil” for doing so.
Similarly, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis flew a planeload to California in June, prompting an online war of words with Governor Gavin Newsom.
Back in Chicago, protests broke out in November against Johnson’s plans to build migrant camps in the Brighton Park region of the city. Some people complained that the Mayor did nothing to help homeless Chicagoans but found funding to house newly arrived illegal immigrants. “I feel that the people of Chicago should be taken care of first before migrants,” one demonstrator said.
Figures show that in the fiscal year 2023, there were more than 2.5 million migrant encounters at the southern border, a new high. Monthly records were also broken in December, with 225,000 arrivals that month.
Immigration is central to Donald Trump’s White House campaign as he promises to close the border and conduct mass deportations.
