Chicago migrant crisis could collide with 2024 DNC
- Chicago will host the 2024 Democratic National Convention in August
- A migrant crisis exists within the city, and shelter space is finite
- The mayor's office hopes to move migrants to more stable shelter by winter
FILE – Immigrants from Venezuela are reflected in a marble wall while taking shelter at the Chicago Police Department’s 16th District station on Monday, May 1, 2023. Nearly 1,600 migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. will be relocated from Chicago police stations to winterized camps with massive tents under a plan by Mayor Brandon Johnson, according to a report released Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, FIle)
maylen
(NewsNation) — An ongoing migrant influx in Chicago will add an element of difficulty to planning the Democratic National Convention, which takes place next August and will see high-ranking government officials and tens of thousands of visitors descend on the city.
Migrant families on Tuesday crowded around each other outside the 18th Precinct, using makeshift tarps as tents that lined the sidewalks.
Inside some police stations, men, women and children lay on mats and blankets while waiting for open shelter spaces.
The city, however, is running out of shelter space.
Nearly 12,000 people are staying in shelters, while more than 3,000 are hunkering down at the airport and police stations across the city.
Since May, 345 buses have arrived in the Windy City. They primarily come from Texas border cities at the direction of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
The Chicago mayor’s office has reportedly said it will increase security around the United Center, where the convention will be hosted.
The goal is also to get new migrant arrivals off the floors of the police stations before winter. The DNC is scheduled to take place from Aug. 19-22.
NewsNation asked if the host committee and DNC committee were concerned about this crisis and received this response: “We are confident the relevant stakeholders will continue working with their partners to support these families and look forward to hosting a convention that highlights our commitment to workers’ rights, reproductive freedom, economic justice, and improving the lives of working families everywhere.”
The DNC hasn’t been hosted in Chicago since 1996, and there’s a lot of pressure to get it right.
The Republican National Convention won’t be far, either. That’s being hosted about 90 miles north in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
