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CHICAGO Mayor Brandon Johnson will not join a group of alderpeople and city officials traveling to the southern U.S. border this week, reversing an earlier decision to lead the delegation himself.

Johnson told reporters earlier this month he would be heading to the border soon with the goal of streamlining coordination between officials in Texas and Chicago, which has seen hundreds of buses full of asylum seekers arrive here unannounced since May.

But in a news release Monday, Johnson said he would not attend the trip. Instead, the delegation leaving Tuesday will be headed by Beatriz Ponce de Leon, deputy mayor of Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights. The citys Chief of Faith Engagement and at least two alderpeople also will join the trip.

The purpose of this trip is to review operations at federal processing centers, and municipal and NGO-led transit sites, and begin discussions with local stakeholders about ways to alleviate the financial and operations challenges in both Chicago and at the border, the Mayors Office said in a statement. A point of emphasis will be establishing better lines of communication and collecting migrant data to expedite work authorization processing and the transition to self-sufficiency.

The border visit comes as the city struggles to house thousands of asylum seekers who have come to Chicago since August 2022, the majority of them bused here by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other border-state politicians.

The city is currently operating 25 temporary shelters to house migrants. Meanwhile, more than 3,300 people remain sleeping on the floors of police stations as of Monday morning as they await shelter placement, according to a city spokesperson. About 550 asylum seekers are currently staying at a staging area at OHare.

The majority of the arrivals are from Venezuela, which has struggled with political upheaval and an economic crisis resulting in severe food and medicine shortages, surging inflation, rising unemployment and violent crime.

The number of buses carrying migrants to Chicago exploded over the spring and summer, with 318 of 428 total buses arriving since May 12, according to daily numbers provided by the spokesperson.

The citys border delegation this week follows a similar trip taken earlier this month by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who visited Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia to discourage migrants from coming to the countrys largest city.

But unlike Adams, Johnson will remain in Chicago for now, at least. The mayors senior advisor Jason Lee said Johnson still plans to visit the border at some point, but didnt share a timeline for when that would be.

We want to make sure that we get an advance mission down there to really have some substantive conversations, really do some fact finding to get a better better sense of exactly what the baseline information is, and whats possible, so that by the time the mayor gets down there, hes really negotiating concrete deliverables, Lee said. So based on the feedback we got from the border, we thought this would probably be the better way to do it if we really wanted to maximize his time.

The city delegation will visit El Paso, San Antonio, McAllen and Brownsville in Texas, which Mondays news release said compromise the primary points of departure for migrants traveling on to Chicago.

A major goal of the trip is to provide information to officials working with migrants in Texas about what new arrivals can expect to find in Chicago, especially as the weather gets colder, Lee said.

Its to give an accurate presentation of what to expect if you do get to Chicago, Lee said. The people were visiting are the people who manage those systems. Theyre the people who manage the transit centers, theyre the NGOs and municipal leaders who manage transit systems, that are at the point where people are on buses. They have the opportunity to counsel, advise and give information to individuals as they arise.

Alds. William Hall (6th) and Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) confirmed Monday they were attending the trip.

Sigcho-Lopez said he believed it was important for city officials to see up close whats happening at the border to connect the dots to the ongoing crisis in Chicago.

We need to coordinate efforts to see how were going to address this crisis, the Pilsen alderperson said. The crisis is not stopping because someone says, Dont come anymore. The crisis stops when we ask from the federal government and the state government to have comprehensive reform and real policies to prevent people from coming to the country, but also once theyre here in the country, that were responsible for the crisis that we have created.

Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th), chair of the Councils Committee on Immigration and Refugee Rights, said he was invited on the trip but declined to go due to City Council budget hearings this week.

Johnsons administration also hopes the trip will lead to the city getting more information about specific new arrivals coming to Chicago such as their country of origin, their work authorization status and other details that could help the city resettle them more quickly, Lee said.

Whats happening now is we get no information. Theres such a deluge of people incoming, its very difficult to ascertain who they are. Theyre moving at different shelters. And by the time youre able to triage in the back end, it may be two or three months down the road, and thats costing the city significantly, Lee said. More information on the front end will help us actually get these people to self sufficiency much quicker.

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