Why the Democratic National Convention could be spared from mass busing of migrants

The Democratic National Convention will likely be spared from the mass influx of migrants bused into Chicago from the Texas border, despite a city official’s claim that the city is preparing to welcome tens of thousands of migrants in August.

Chicago Deputy Mayor for Immigration Beatriz Ponce de León said in July that the city was considering the arrival of “between 20,000 and 25,000 people” before and during the Democratic National Convention. Axios reported last month.

Although three-term Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) touted during his speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month that “the buses will keep running until we finally secure our border,” Texas has not documented any migrants brought to Chicago since June 14, when operations ground to a halt, according to a report. Washington Examiner Analysis of state data.

Between August 2022 and July 2023, some 4,300 migrants were bused to Chicago. Arrivals increased rapidly last fall, with the state reaching 17,200 in November.

By New Year’s, more than 28,000 migrants had arrived in Chicago on buses from Texas.

Numbers continued to rise at a slower pace than the previous year in early 2024. In April, arrivals exceeded 34,000, but plateaued in early June after exceeding 36,000.

In each of the past seven weeks, the state has not disclosed the transportation of migrants to Chicago.

“We’re not seeing as many buses. In fact, we haven’t seen a bus coming into Chicago in a month and a half,” Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Ill.) recently told reporters.

The sudden decline in the number of migrants arriving by bus in Chicago comes amid a significant drop in the number of migrants arrested at the southern border. Since December 2023, illegal immigration apprehensions have dropped from 250,000 that month to fewer than 60,000 in July.

The overall decline in migrant arrests and releases at the U.S. border has meant less demand for public transportation, including state-funded buses to sanctuary cities like Chicago.

This means that Chicago has been able to function relatively normally again. The city peaked in January 2024, when 15,000 migrants were housed in 28 emergency shelters across the city.

In June, fewer than 6,000 migrants were spread across 17 shelters.

The busing effort in Texas began in 2022 when Abbott’s office began providing free rides for migrants to New York City and Washington, D.C. In August 2022, he expanded the operation to include Chicago.

“With its ‘Welcoming City Ordinance’ making it a sanctuary city, Chicago will not deny city services to individuals based on their immigration status,” the governor’s office said in a 2022 announcement.

Abbott’s office did not immediately provide the information. Washington Examiner with an estimate of the costs of busing migrants to Chicago over the past two years.

Texas, however, has touted an 85% decline in migrant arrests along the state’s border with Mexico since it stepped up security in early 2021. Since then, migrants have increasingly headed west to enter the United States in states like California and Arizona.

TO The New York Times A July report said Texas had spent $230 million busing about 120,000 migrants to the six cities.

The busing operation was in addition to other statewide enhancements to respond to the number of illegal immigrants apprehended trying to enter the country from Mexico. Abbott first took action in March 2021, deploying 10,000 state police and military personnel to the state’s border to assist federal authorities under “Operation Lone Star.”

The buses offered migrants rides to certain cities that self-identified as “sanctuary” zones for migrants, typically Democratic-controlled jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Many immigrants who are released into the United States by Border Patrol after crossing the border illegally are placed on humanitarian parole, while others are given papers requiring them to appear in immigration court.

Migrants must volunteer to board buses and sign liability waivers. They are not in federal, state or local custody during their transport.

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Officials in host cities have lamented that Texas did not give much warning before releasing dozens or hundreds of people into their cities each day.

Chicago Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, Pritzker, the Harris campaign and the DNC had no comment.