Since beginning Operation Lone Star in March 2021, Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott says the state has sent nearly 6,000 immigrants detained at the southern border to Chicago. Now, Chicago police report numerous instances of violence against police by immigrants frustrated with overcrowded housing and a lack of resources in the so-called sanctuary city.
Officers stationed at the 12th District Precinct reported a number of assaults, thefts, and threats from immigrants just this week. At least one police officer was hospitalized briefly after being injured while attempting to apprehend an unruly individual. The City claims that shelters are full and immigrants are housed in police station lobbies, including the 12th District station.
In two separate incidents on Tuesday, September 5, Chicago police reported being threatened by immigrants and assaulted. On Wednesday, an immigrant stole police property and attempted to evade police on foot. A second immigrant assaulted police who were in pursuit, leading to the hospitalization of one officer. All unruly immigrants have been arrested, but police warn that more violence will come unless the crisis is resolved.
Overcrowded shelters and a backlog of applicants for asylum is nothing new in Texas, where the state has dealt with an unprecedented influx of foreigners seeking refuge and a future in the United States. The immigrant crisis began in 2018 but has been exacerbated by a lack of response by President Joe Biden’s administration which has left border states to deal with the crisis on their own.
For the second day in a row, migrants and police clashed at the 12th District station Wednesday.
Today's flare-up came after a migrant tripped an officer who was chasing a man who stole a high-security CPD radio from the station's front desk.https://t.co/RmkcTvLXBt
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) September 7, 2023
In August, a coalition of Democrats from Illinois increased calls for the Biden Administration to move on some form of reform to alleviate the impact that thousands of undocumented immigrants have caused the city. In particular, the legislators are requesting the administration make changes to the process for obtaining work permits. Right now, it takes between six months and one year for immigrants to obtain federal authorization to work, leaving these individuals with few options other than sleeping on the street or in a shelter -when space is available.
Democrats in New York, another self-proclaimed sanctuary city, are also buckling under the pressure of thousands of immigrants, many who are being bussed from southern border states. New York plans to spend more than $14 billion in the next few years to address the number of immigrants in the city.
The vast majority of immigrants come from impoverished, war-torn countries and are simply seeking a better life in which they can provide for their families. Mixed in with the well-meaning immigrants is an unknown number of bad apples; terrorists, criminals, and people who are looking to cheat the system. Along with apprehending more than 400,000 immigrants, Texas also reports that it has taken half a billion doses of fentanyl off the streets. Fentanyl is at the forefront of the current opioid overdose crisis. In Chicago, fentanyl overdose deaths have risen from just over 100 in 2015 to nearly 2,000 last year in the wake of the Biden Administration’s failure to secure the southern border.
