Feds meet with Chicago City Council members to discuss migrant assistance
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Biden administration is making another dramatic reversal in policy amid the migrant crisis.
The White House is pushing through a plan to add to a border wall in southern Texas – and they are waiving 26 federal laws to do so.
The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement on the U.S. Federal Registry with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas, which is part of a busy Border Patrol sector seeing "high illegal entry." According to government data, about 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded so far this fiscal year in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, which contains 21 counties.
"There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas," Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, stated in the notice.
On Thursday, Mayorkas said the notice on Wednesday had been "taken out of context." It did not, he said, "signify any change in policy whatsoever."
President Joe Biden campaigned against the border wall – and on Thursday, he insisted he is still against it.
Federal data show Border Patrol reported nearly 3,000 encounters in the Rio Grande Valley between last October and August.
Meanwhile, the federal government is resuming deportations to Venezuela. And back in Chicago, some alderpeople are meeting with members of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
As CBS 2's Sabrina Franza reported, a small group of alderpeople met with DHS representatives Thursday to talk about the migrant crisis in a closed-door meeting. Their hope was to secure more federal resources to help Chicago house new arrivals.
Sources told us the meeting was pretty much uneventful.
But from the wall at the border to the walls of City Hall, Chicago is struggling to accommodate the new arrivals. More than 10,000 migrants are now in city shelters, and over 3,000 are in police stations and airports.
A total of 357 buses have arrived, and counting.
Mayor Brandon Johnson signed a $29 million contract with a private security firm to set up tent base camps, with no locations for those camps secured.
Last week, the Chicago City Council met for hours to catch up on what's been going on. On Thursday, some alderpeople met with officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Johnson said they arrived in Chicago on Wednesday.
Sources said the meeting Thursday was held with a select few alderpeople and members of DHS. City Council members, we are told, asked the Biden administration to announce a humanitarian crisis – citing that DHS officials wanted to see if the situation is as severe as it seems in video taken in Chicago.
Other than that, there were no significant updates.
Recently, many in the City Council criticized the federal government for not doing enough to help the situation in Chicago.
Meanwhile on the fast-tracking of the construction of the border wall, President Biden was asked if he believes the wall works. He said no.
Addressing reporters in the White House Thursday, President Biden said he didn't want to build the wall, but that his hands were tied by the law Congress passed in 2019.
"They have to use the money from what was appropriated," Biden said. "I can't stop that."
Some alderpeople, and Mayor Brandon Johnson, said they plan to go to the border to assess the situation – though no concrete plans have been made.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) said she is "glad to see Mayor Johnson is traveling to the border soon."
Duckworth added that she too has been in communication with DHS – reiterating the need to expedite work authorizations for asylum seekers, and stressing the need for more federal assistance.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Illinois) also released a statement saying she was glad to see DHS assessing Chicago's issues with the migrant crisis:
"I am pleased that, this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent a team to support the City of Chicago and assess our needs as we keep providing essential services to asylum seekers.
"I have been in consistent communication with DHS over the last several months, and I am glad they are taking seriously the urgent concerns leaders across our state and I have expressed. Their visit demonstrates the kind of intentional intergovernmental coordination needed to develop a comprehensive response. I hope that this trip is the first of several productive engagements that help us identify the resources and solutions needed to equip Chicago to respond to the needs of new arrivals."
The DHS said it is coordinating with the city and state to "identify ways to continue to maximize our support for communities that are addressing the needs of migrants while enforcing tough consequences against those without a legal basis to remain in the country."
The agency added that the Biden administration has given over $1 billion in support to communities and nonprofit organizations.
That number includes, CBS 2 was told, $46.5 million to the state of Illinois and the City of Chicago this past fiscal year.
The mayor and some alderpeople are supposed to go to the border together, but there's been no word yet on a date or time.
