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Antonio Contreras does not know what has happened in the last year and a half in the city that is now his home. Nor does he know of the dramas that have taken place in the industrial warehouse where he has been sleeping with his family and a thousand other migrants for two months. Sitting at the doors of the largest migrant shelter in Chicago, where he sells drinks and cookies informally to make money, he can only think about his own odyssey, so similar to that of so many Venezuelans but at the same time so unique. His journey has something of a happy ending, but its outcome is the beginning of another story in which he is nothing more than a pawn that the Republican governor of Texas moves as he pleases. Since the end of August 2022, Greg Abbott has sent hundreds of thousands of migrants from Texas to some of the supposedly most progressive cities in the country. The message is clear: if you love migrants so much, you take care of them.

No city is prepared to receive such a sudden and disorderly influx of migrants. Chicago, the capital of Illinois, which has 2.6 million residents, has received more than 40,000 migrants, about 2% of its original population. With these numbers, Abbotts move has achieved its desired result: it has called into question the historic welcoming identity of Chicago, exacerbated existing political tensions in the city, many of them racial, and has forced the local administration to improvise, sometimes poorly, a response for which there is no precedent.

The move has laid bare the partisan war between Republicans and Democrats, and the conflict between state and federal authorities over immigration powers. The crisis fueled by Abbots policies and Chicagos inability to respond to the situation has strengthened the idea that immigration is out of control, since not even its defenders how to address the problem.

The chaos began on August 31, 2022. On that day, a private bus carrying about 50 Latino migrants, mainly Venezuelans, arrived in Chicago unannounced from Texas. When they got off on a random street in the center of the city, they explained that in Texas, once they had been handed over to the authorities after crossing the border, they were asked which city they preferred to go to: New York, Washington where Texas had already been busing migrants for months or Chicago. Depending on the answer, based on whether they had a family member or friend there or simply heard something good about the place, they were put on one bus or the other. Then, they were bused more than a thousand miles north, not knowing what would await them.

By the end of September, more than 70 buses had arrived in Chicago with around 9,000 migrants. Abbott made no secret of his policy. I have directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to deploy additional buses to send these migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities and provide much-needed relief to our overrun border towns. Until President Biden upholds his constitutional duty to secure Americas southern border, Texas will continue to deploy as many buses as needed to relieve the strain caused by the surge of illegal crossings, the Texas governor said on September 22, 2022.

Since then the practice is still part of the Texas immigration policy called Operation Lone Star the focus has fallen mainly on Democrat Joe Biden. The U.S. president has taken note and imposed increasingly restrictive immigration rules, wary of how the crisis may affect the November elections. However, it has been the sanctuary cities which Abbott targets in a bid to expose their alleged moral hypocrisy, since this self-designation implies a commitment to provide shelter and food to migrants and to not collaborate with immigration agencies on deportations which, without substantial help from the federal government, have faced the problem.

From that first day, it has been a matter of improvising solutions on the go. Vernica Romn Saldaa, one of the coordinators of the Pilsen Food Pantry, a community organization that fights food insecurity, remembers what it was like. The local councilor looked for us when the buses started arriving. Our pantry director, Dr. Evelyn Figueroa, had run a homeless shelter during Covid, so she had experience. So they chose her to organize a small, temporary shelter. But what happened is that after a while, the owner of the building, which was borrowed, needed it back.

Chicago residents took action to help the migrants, just as they did during the pandemic and following the recent arrival of Afghans and Ukrainians. But acts of solidarity only go so far. The buses kept arriving and the idea of municipal shelters run in conjunction with charities did not take off; partly due to logistical difficulties, partly due to legal and bureaucratic obstacles. So a quick and supposedly easy decision was made: the migrants would be relocated to the citys police stations.

Twelve police stations were set up to house migrants. For many months, some of these facilities had more than 200 people. Migrants slept in sleeping bags in the halls and in plastic tents outside. Whats more, since the stations were work spaces and not homes, there was no access to showers or kitchens. With no clear plan, the first tensions began to arise. The police force which has a history of scandals and police brutality began to rebel. Some officers were dedicated to supporting migrants, but many others complained when they were forced to walk on tiptoe to avoid the bodies crammed into their offices. The situation made it impossible for them to fulfill their usual responsibilities. For the migrants, who were grateful that at least they were being given shelter and food, complaints were made about their treatment and conditions. At least one complaint of alleged sexual abuse by an officer was also filed, although the case has not been resolved and is progressing slowly.

By December 2022, winter was just around the corner, which in Chicago means temperatures as low as -22F (-30C). Municipal buildings as well as sports centers located in city parks were turned into social and community centers. It seemed like a better solution because they were larger spaces, with good heating and bathrooms with showers. Despite the enormous expense involved in opening these shelters, the challenge of what to do in winter was overcome.

When spring arrived, many of the migrants from the first months had been relocated to temporary housing or had gone to other parts of the country where they had acquaintances or a job offer, even if it was without papers. But this didnt make much of a difference, especially with what was to come. As the weather improved, border crossings increased again. Additionally, Chicago elected a new mayor: moderate Democrat Lori Lightfoot was replaced by Brandon Johnson, a progressive who began his political career during a city teachers union strike in 2012. Around that time it was also announced that the city would host the Democratic National Convention in 2024. Within weeks, the spotlight became fixed on Chicago. Abbott and the Republican Party stepped up their efforts to portray the city as an example of the dysfunctionality of progressive politicians.

For Johnson, a new strategy was needed to take the migrants out of police stations and municipal buildings in parks, which had stopped fulfilling their original purpose for local communities. This triggered tensions among citizens, who felt like they were being pushed out. But before anything could be planned, a new wave of migrants arrived from Texas.

Chicagos migrant reception systems, which includes a medical check-up and the practically immediate enrollment of minors in schools, neared breaking point. There was also not enough spaces to accommodate people, who began to sleep and live in bus stations, and soon in Chicagos two airports, as Texas also began to charter flights of migrants. Migrant arrivals peaked in the summer and early fall of 2023.

Last September, Chicago authorities presented a plan for the following winter: they would build a Tent City, camp made up of huge tents with heating and other facilities to house up to 2,000 migrants a similar plan to the field hospitals built in different cities around the world during the Covid pandemic. The Tent City would be flexible and could be adapted to the citys changing needs. For the city, it was the perfect solution.

It was the second major blow to the social fabric of Chicago. Initially, the public rejected the idea of housing migrants in tents during the harsh winter on the shores of Lake Michigan; they were unconvinced that the heated tents would be able to provide adequate shelter in such extreme temperatures. Despite this, the project started moving forward in the southern part of the city.

The South Side of Chicago is an area known for its historically high rate of poverty, lack of basic services and homelessness. It is estimated that the vast majority of the 60,000 homeless people in the city live mainly in the south. Chicagos South Side has also long been predominantly Black. These neighborhoods complained that the city intended to invest to help the newcomers, when it had not invested in the community who had been living there for decades. It was an idea that reverberated through local businesses, the streets, and eventually trickled into municipal offices. Tensions were high.

The crisis was a victory for Abbott, as it showed the friction between local authorities, which had been downplayed by the progressive coalition. Councilor Byron Sigcho-Lpez, an important ally of Mayor Johnson in one of the most Latino locations in the city, is clear on this point. We have become a target and they want to destroy coalitions like ours to make us an example of what happens when people believe in democracy. The councilor adds that migration should not be seen as something negative, pointing out that migrants are needed as there are many vacant jobs throughout the country. He explains that the problem is when the arrivals are concentrated in one place and push reception services to the limit.

During the fall, Johnson did his best to keep the Tent City plan alive, but amidst citizen opposition and the results of the soil studies, which found high levels of toxic substances on the site where the camp was to be built, it was announced in early December that the contract was being cancelled. Efforts were then made to relocate the migrants who were in police stations and airports to temporary shelters. By that time, there were around 30 temporary shelters, including converted hotels and industrial warehouses as well as municipal buildings, with an average of 500 occupants in each. By December 17, a few days before the official beginning of winter, the migrants still in police stations and airports had been removed. Victory was claimed but too soon.

Hundreds of people had been relocated, but the shelters were now completely overcrowded. The weather exacerbated the conditions, keeping everyone inside at all hours. There was a spike in complaints from migrants about the treatment and quality of the food. And as a final consequence, with the lessons of the pandemic about distancing and infections forgotten, there was an outbreak of measles in the largest shelter in the city, a warehouse in the industrial area of the Pilsen neighborhood where about 1,200 people were living.

There were never any exact figures on how many infections there were, in fact for a long time it was denied that it had happened. But the preventable death of a five-year-old child from respiratory complications in March made it impossible to hide the seriousness of the situation. Lopez, in whose district the shelter is located, again sought help from the Pilsen Food Pantry, given its director had also helped coordinate Covid vaccination efforts. In less than a week, they had inoculated all the shelter residents, and the volunteer medical team linked with the organization began making rounds to the rest of the citys shelters for vaccinations and regular checkups.

It was one of the worst moments for the administration. Their basic needs were not being met. Nobody is asking for a red carpet or five-star hotels, but at least give them the basics, treat them like human beings. Its difficult, there is a lot that needs to be done. At least now the city has changed the procedures in the arrival areas: now they are vaccinated immediately and a medical examination is done, explains Vernica Romn Saldaa.

Since then, the management of new arrivals has improved substantially. But challenges remain, and there is reluctance to accept responsibility for past mistakes. The citys budget is overstretched, even though it has received significant aid from the Illinois state government, and the outlook for the remainder of the year is far from clear.

In order to empty the shelters, the same system as in New York was put in place, limiting lengths of stay to 30 days for single adults or 60 for families. In Chicago, the plan was announced in early March and began to be implemented in April, but exceptions for families with school children, the vast majority, and people with medical conditions, meant that by mid-May only about 700 people had been moved out of the shelters. Whats more, as the weather improves, the flow of migrants from Texas is expected to increase again, although this depends on border crossings, which are currently at relatively low levels for the time of year, mainly due to the cooperative agreement with the Mexican government.

But in Chicago they dont trust the downward trend. They know that they have the Democratic National Convention at the end of August, and they suspect that Abbott will want to cause more chaos to make it look like the Democrat Party is incapable of governing. Mayor Brandon Johnson believes there is only one quick and effective solution to the situation: granting work permits for migrants. In early April he led a petition with several other mayors of smaller cities addressed to President Biden precisely along these lines.

Walking around the city it is evident that workers are needed: there are plenty of signs and ads looking for bus or train drivers, cooks, cleaners, delivery people, builders, and a long etcetera. There is also no lack of desire to work, to pursue the American dream. Antonio Contreras is the perfect example. Early in the morning he sets up his informal business at the doors of that industrial building that is the largest shelter in the city. He has been selling soft drinks, juices, cookies, chips, gum and candy since he arrived in Chicago three months ago. With his earnings turned into savings, and reconverted into investment, he has bought a car. He doesnt care if he doesnt know what goes on in the offices of mayors, governors or presidents. But in his reflections, he sums up the simplicity and complexity of the problem: I just want to work and raise my family.

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Chicago struggles to cope with mass influx of migrants sent from Texas - EL PAS USA

New York City began a new push to evict migrants from its shelter system on Wednesday as the city enters a more aggressive phase in its effort to ease the strain that the migrant crisis has placed on the citys budget and shelters.

The first wave of evictions will affect adult migrants who were given 30-day notices a month ago as part of the citys push to enforce stricter time limits on shelter stays. Adult migrants who wish to stay longer can receive an extension if the city determines they meet one of several exceptions.

The new policy, which goes into effect on a rolling basis, will initially apply to about 250 migrants this week. City officials said on Wednesday that they had denied extension requests to 74 migrants and had granted 118 extensions so far. Those denied extensions will be forced to leave the shelters.

As the rules are phased in, they will eventually cover all 15,000 adult migrants that the city is paying to house in an array of hotels, tent dormitories and other buildings under the citys right-to-shelter mandate.

The administration of Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, is betting that the threat of evictions will incentivize migrants to find other housing arrangements and help reduce the overall shelter population of 65,000, most of whom are families with children. Officials are also seeking to make space for the hundreds of migrants still arriving from the southern border each week.

I dont know when the crisis is going to be over, Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor leading the citys migrant response, said on Tuesday. We are trying to exit people out of the system so that we can have some stability and then set up something that is more permanent.

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New York Begins a New Wave of Evictions From Migrant Shelters - The New York Times

Denver city officials have just released a 22-page guide that comprehensively details how to house, feed, clothe, employ, and otherwise subsidize and reward illegal immigration. Its based on the citys own experience as a sanctuary jurisdiction and now theyre anxious to share their success with municipal colleagues across thecountry.

In fact, theyre absolutely giddy about theirnew guide:

Introduction: Welcome to the City and County of Denvers Newcomers Playbook! We are thrilled that you are interested in creating a welcoming environment for migrants in your city. As part of Denvers welcoming approach, we use the term newcomers to refer to migrants, recognizing that they are new to our city and embracing a more inclusive language. This playbook is a guide divided into two sections, offering recommendations and strategies for successfully integrating newcomers into yourcity.

As instruction manuals go, the Playbook is a marvel of thoroughness; a turnkey to-do list for any public official wanting to launch a sanctuary jurisdiction, or to take their existing sanctuary policies to a whole new level. The Playbook details how to establish migrant intake centers; ensure efficient transportation; set up budgets; assign individualized case workers; provide housing and health care; develop networks with volunteers, nonprofits, and community based organizations; and locate local, state and federal funding sources. Meticulous in its detail, the Playbook also offers a voluminous check list of guest-related questions sanctuary administrators carefully consider suchas:

If showers and laundry services are not available at the site, how will you ensure these services are accessible? Will you bring in shower trailers and laundry trucks or provide resources for guests to find these services on their own? How many staff members are needed for each shift to support the guests, and what communication infrastructure is necessary for consistent communication between decision-makers and shelter workers? How will you ensure that the necessary resources to assist guests in their journey are available and ready to beused?

The Playbook hasnt overlooked anything, even offering creative workarounds for newcomers lack of Social Security numbers, and the difficulty that presents when the city rents themapartments:

If an online application requires an SSN to move forward in the online portal, we have entered 123-45-6789. If a landlord insists on an SSN, look for a differentapartment.

Denver definitely follows its own advice. The city offers migrantsamong other thingssix months of rental, food and utility assistance, a free computer, a prepaid cell phone and metro bus passes. We designed this program to be holistic, saidSarah Plastino, director of the citys NewcomerProgram.

Since December 2022, nearly 40,000 illegal aliens arrived in Denver -more per capita than any other city in the nation, costing more than $42 million, althoughsome put the figure closer to $100 million. As is the case in so many other sanctuary cities, Denvers welcoming policies have resulted in housing shortages, public encampments, spiralingschool costs and a dramatic rise ofuncompensated care at local hospitals. City resources are nearly depleted,forcing several departments, including police and fire, to slash their budgets to free up funds to deal with theinflux.

Despite the chaos, Denver feels compelled to peddle their Newcomer Playbook to other American city officials. Its lengthy guide concludes with an encouraging message that other cities follow theirlead:

We hope that the City and County of Denvers Newcomers Playbook proves to be a valuable resource for other cities that are embarking on a new chapter in supporting newcomers and providing these services on a largescale.

Maybe it isworth a look. Public officials who want law and order and fiscal solvency in their cities should closely examine what Denver does and then make sure they do the exactopposite.

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Your City Doesn't Have a Migrant Crisis Yet? Just Ask Denver for its New How-To Guide. | FAIRUS.org - Federation for American Immigration Reform

When the Tusk government came to office in December, many activists had been hoping it would bring a new approach to the Belarusian border situation, especially as the parties that make up the coalition previously criticised Law and Justice (PiS) for its handling of the migration crisis since 2021.

That crisis was initially fomented by the Belarusian regime, which over the last three years has lured tens of thousands of migrants mainly from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa to Minsk, bussed them to its borders with the EU, and herded them towards the border. In the last year and a half, migrants have increasingly arrived first in Russia before moving westwards, highlighting Russias involvement in creating this new migratory Eastern Borders Route.

As if to signal a change in direction, Prime Minister Tusk appointed an academic specialising in migration, Maciej Duszczyk, to the post of deputy interior minister in charge of the matter. Duszczyk not only began work on a much-needed comprehensive migration policy for the country, but also announced an end to what he called non-humanitarian pushbacks.

I assure you that the Border Guard no longer conducts pushbacks like those seen under Law and Justice since 2023, Duszczyk told Gazeta Wyborcza in an interview in early 2024, shortly after his appointment. As a migration researcher, I have seen films with pushbacks conducted in a very non-humanitarian way. Such actions cannot take place in a democratic state that respects human rights.

In March, the Polish Border Guard set up so-called search-and-rescue teams, formed to seek out and assist migrants whose life and health might be in danger on the border.

Yet according to Katarzyna Czarnota of the Helskinski Foundation for Human Rights, there is a legitimate risk that the setting up of these search-and-rescue teams actually increases the number of migrants being disappeared on the Polish-Belarusian border, referring to those migrants who are pushed back, die or their fate becomes unknown.

Czarnota told BIRN that based on observations by activists at the border, Polish officials whether from the search-and-rescue teams or regular border guards might indeed now be more open to searching for migrants than during the time of the previous PiS government. However, upon finding them, beyond checking their vitals, the conduct remains the same: if the migrant is considered stable enough, he or she is taken back across the border, regardless of nationality, age or having expressed a clear intent to apply for asylum in Poland.

As a consequence, beyond the lives potentially saved, the number of migrants detected and pushed back could actually be higher than before the setting up of the teams, Czarnota suggests.

Despite many appeals by human rights groups, the Tusk cabinet has yet to repeal the so-called border regulation of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, passed by PiS in 2021, that claims to legalise pushbacks in Poland, but which legal experts and the Polish Ombudsman argue is contrary to national and international law protecting the right to asylum, and thus illegal.

The new Polish government conducts humanitarian pushbacks, Czarnota drily noted, repeating a common wordplay used by Polish activists.

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Poland's New Government Continues Migrant Pushbacks on Belarus Border - Balkan Insight

Inside a Midtown church-turned-migrant help center, volunteer Alexia Sol has recently begun handing out a new form: a record of daily activities. The migrants are meant to use the form to track their efforts to leave the shelter system in hopes that the accounting will help them remain in it.

Always bring this paper with you, Sol recently told a group of men in Spanish at the Metro Baptist Church. She instructed them to meticulously log English classes, meetings with lawyers and any other proactive steps theyve taken to put the citys shelter system behind them. Record the date, time and place for everything you do, she said.

We cant be sure this will work, but its the best advice we can give right now, states a message on the log.

Starting this Wednesday, May 22, adult migrants can be evicted from city shelters after reaching a limit of 30 or 60 days -- depending on their age -- with limited opportunities to remain, under new shelter rules agreed upon in a court settlement in March. Under the agreement, migrants who have reached their stay limit will only be allowed to remain in shelter under extenuating circumstances, including making significant efforts to find their own place to stay hence the accounting suggested by Sol.

Migrants awaiting assistance at Metro Baptist Church in Midtown.

Arya Sundaram / Gothamist

There are approximately 250 migrants whose shelter stays will expire in the first five days of the new policy rollout, between May 22 and May 27, according to City Hall spokesperson Noah Levine. Many more will face the same challenge. From April 24 through early last week, city staffers at migrant shelters and intake centers alerted some 6,500 adult migrants that their shelter stays would be limited to 30 or 60 days, and theyd only be granted extensions under certain circumstances, City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said.

And starting May 27, all adult migrants who enter the shelter system will be subject to the new rules, Camille Joseph Varlack, Mayor Eric Adams' chief of staff, told reporters in a video briefing on Friday.

As of Friday morning, 29 migrants had applied for shelter extensions, Varlack said. She added that 14 were approved and 15 were denied.

Although city officials have yet to fully define what constitutes significant efforts to find new housing, migrants have been racing to document their efforts to get settled. At once, a network of attorneys and aid workers has mobilized to help prove their case, including by creating a paper trail.

The looming deadline marks a new era in the citys response to the migrant crisis, as the Adams administration increases pressure on the 65,000 migrants under the citys care to leave the shelter system and gain independence whether or not they are prepared to do so.

The administration has not indicated how many of those migrants it expects to leave the system. Josh Goldfein, a Legal Aid attorney involved in the settlement negotiations, said he will closely monitor the citys actions to see if they comply with the terms of the agreement.

When Sol instructed Venezuelan migrant Dorwar Perez, 24, to track his meetings, he nodded and replied mhm. He put the new form she provided into a bubble wrap bag he uses for storing important documents.

Dorwar and two of his fellow asylum-seeking friends said they planned to bring the new forms to their appointments the following day to get municipal IDs.

If he and his friends are denied shelter, Dorwar said in Spanish, I dont know whats going to happen with us. Where will we go?

Adams defends the shelter limits despite criticism from City Council leaders and the city comptroller, and has cited the need to reduce migrant costs by nudging migrants to leave the shelter system.

New York City's government has spent over $4.5 billion on the migrant crisis since July 2022. In unveiling his latest executive budget, Adams credited the shelter limits for helping to reduce migrant costs by $586 million through June 2025.

It's hard for me to understand how lots of people aren't going to end up on the street.

But a new report from the Independent Budget Office, the citys fiscal watchdog, says the administration hasn't considered the potential negative consequences of the shelter restrictions.

The budget office's report estimates the policy could cost the city over $2 billion per year, which includes health care for migrants who end up homeless, buses for public school students who move to new locations, and the impact to the local economy due to mail issues keeping migrants from accessing work permits.

Mamelak, from City Hall, said in a statement that the report seems to have a complete misunderstanding of the realities of this crisis, makes several inaccurate assumptions, and, in many cases, just simply misstates the facts.

She took issue with the budget office's assumption that a quarter of migrants who receive notices to leave shelter will become homeless, and the lack of consideration of migrants already working under-the table.

According to a shelter placement letter obtained by Gothamist, migrants are informed of the possibility to extend their stay if they meet one of a range of conditions, such as documentation of significant efforts to leave the shelter system or travel outside of the City of New York.

That could include applying for asylum, finding a job or taking English classes, among several other examples.

The more steps you take, the more likely you will be to demonstrate that you have made significant efforts, the letter said in Spanish.

You should document all the steps you take to leave temporary shelter, either presenting a document or taking photos with your phone that show the steps you have taken, the letter continued.

Nonetheless, immigrant and housing advocates say they worry about migrants being unfairly pushed out of the shelter system. Some point to the dearth of intensive case management services the city promised to help migrants exit the shelter system. A recent comptrollers office report cited the lack of such services for migrant families.

It's hard for me to understand how lots of people aren't going to end up on the street, said Deborah Berkman, an attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group. It seems like a lot of the standards are very difficult to comply with.

In particular, she voiced concern about migrants working without formal authorization, which could jeopardize their chances of getting asylum, in order to keep their shelter spots.

Power Malu, who helps run the migrant help center at Metro Baptist Church, said he hopes the new logbooks his volunteers are giving migrants will help show the city the types of activities they should accept as significant efforts to leave the shelter system.

This happens all the time with the city, said Malu, director of the nonprofit Artists Athletes Activists helping local migrants. They implement these policies, and they don't even know they're talking about or how it's going to be rolled out.

Malu added: But the bottom line is that we can't wait to see. We have to just act.

While he worries about what's ahead, Perez said he doesnt want to stay in the shelter system indefinitely.

He said he wants to avoid the fate of some other migrants hes met who have stayed for months in shelter without finding a job, or filing their application to get asylum and work permits.

As long as we're processing our (legal) documents, we need nothing more than to look for a job and leave the shelter, Perez said.

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Migrants and advocates brace for stricter rules in NYC shelters as evictions loom - Gothamist