Hundreds of migrants are hidden behind a black curtain at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, with families sleeping on the floor for up to ten days at a time.
This influx of asylum seekers is a result of Texas moving hundreds of thousands of migrants into Democratic-run cities in protest of federal border policies — pushing many like Chicago to their housing limits.
Currently, 433 migrants are seeking shelter at the airport, where black curtains are being used to hide the deteriorating humanitarian situation.
The video from the shelter, obtained by News Nationreveals children sprawled across the room and depicts harsh living conditions, with some migrants describing the situation as truly inhumane.
The makeshift shelter has poor quality food such as instant ramen, lack of access to health care, showers and laundry facilities, inadequate bedding and no support for placing children in schools, the government said. Chicago Sun Times.
Migrants have also been sleeping on the ground in Chicago police stations since June, awaiting access to proper shelters.
Hundreds of migrants are being hidden behind this black curtain at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, where asylum seekers have reported inhumane living conditions, with families forced to sleep on the floor for up to 10 days.
The video from the shelter shows children sprawled across the room and shows the harsh living conditions, with some migrants describing the situation as truly inhumane.
“While they find us another place, some have been here for ten days. But people keep leaving and the city of Chicago will take us and find us a place to stay,” Rayberth, a Venezuelan migrant who has been in O’Hare for almost a week, told NewsNation.
The overcrowded facility includes many children, well exceeding the city’s capacity limit.
“Here we are really in conditions that are not humane at all. There are a lot of kids who have stomach problems and other things because the food they are getting is not enough,” the migrant added, speaking to News Nation.
Vianney Marzullo, a lead volunteer with the Police Station Response Team advocacy group, told the Chicago Sun Times that O’Hare is likely just a waiting area for the incoming flights.
Chicago continues to struggle influx of thousands of migrants Downtown. About 14,000 migrants have been bussed to Chicago since August.
There are currently 15 reception centers for asylum seekers operating in the city. Another shelter is expected to open on the south side next month.
Currently, 433 migrants are seeking shelter at the airport, forced to sleep on the floors behind black curtains used to hide the deteriorating humanitarian situation.
A new video captured last week by FOX 32 in the Chicago Police Department’s 12th precinct shows migrants still sleeping on the floor where they’ve made beds.
Last week, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a letter asking the federal government for help streamlining work permits for asylum seekers.
“Chicago is approaching the one-year milestone of receiving nearly 14,000 new migrants as a result of politicians’ inhumane practices,” Johnson wrote on social media.
Meanwhile, Texas sent its twelfth busload of migrants to Los Angeles yesterday, just a week after the city voted to allow legal action and a criminal investigation against the state’s Lone Star over its bus program.
The bus arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles on Monday morning, carrying 23 men, 20 women and 21 children on board.
The migrants come from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Russia and Venezuela.
Earlier in June, the state of Florida picked up three dozen migrants in Texas and sent them by private jet to California’s capital, surprising shelters and aid workers in Sacramento.
Earlier this year, DeSantis sent two planeloads of migrants to posh Martha’s Vineyard Island, off the coast of Massachusetts.
The border crossings for migrants come after Title 42 ended in May, sparking an influx of people across the border into the US.
The migrants staying in Chicago police stations say they are better off than those staying in temporary shelters
A migrant couple from Venezuela and their 17-month-old daughter rest in the lobby of a police station where they have been staying with other migrant families since arriving in the city on May 9.
A migrant father from Venezuela changes his 15-month-old son’s diaper in the lobby of a police station
The migrant bus (as pictured above) arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles on Monday, carrying 23 men, 20 women and 21 children on board.
The number of migrants arriving in the US will increase dramatically in 2022
The Title 42 rules were in effect as of March 2020.
The restrictions allowed border officials to quickly send asylum seekers back across the border to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
US authorities have unveiled strict new measures to replace Title 42, which crack down on illegal crossings while establishing legal pathways for migrants who apply online, find a sponsor and undergo background checks.
The Biden administration has opened up new ways for migrants to legally enter the US as part of a broader strategy to discourage people from illegally crossing the US-Mexico border.
Migrants waiting in Mexico can apply for entry to the US through a smartphone app and later apply for asylum, but the places on the app fill up quickly.
Under another Biden program, Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans can request to enter the US by air if they have US sponsors.
But these routes do not offer the same benefits as refugees, nor a direct path to permanent residence and eventual citizenship.