Buses Forced to Leave Illegals in Suburbs After ‘Sanctuary’ Chicago Passes Rules Restricting Dropoffs

Migrants board a bus to the airport Friday, Oct. 6, 2023, in San Diego. San Diego's w
AP Photo/Gregory Bull
Warner Todd Huston

Several busloads of illegal border crossers were dropped off in suburban Chicago towns Friday after the Windy City hastily passed new rules putting heavy restrictions on buses looking to drop off passengers.

Despite his persistent campaign promises to maintain Chicago’s so-called “sanctuary city” policies, Chicago’s recently ensconced “progressive” Mayor Brandon Johnson led an effort in the city council to pass new ordinances that place restrictions on buses transporting migrants from border states, including Texas.

The rules, only put into place a few weeks ago, prevent buses from dropping off homeless passengers on weekends, restricts the times of day buses may drop people off, and limits the number of buses that may enter the city at the same time.

The rules also maintain that Chicago may press heavy fines on the buses and even confiscate their vehicles if the bus restriction ordinances are violated.

The new ordinances, though, only forced bus companies to find places in the Chicago metropolitan area to release their passengers.

Buses were seen dropping off homeless migrants in southwest suburban Lockport, and the city of Peotone in Will County, which is about 50 miles south of downtown Chicago, WFLD-TV reported.

In the latter case, migrants were seen walking toward Chicago down busy Rte. 57 wrapped in blankets and with no real idea where they were going.

In Lockport, residents reported seeing the city’s park district buses loading up illegals to transport them to Chicago’s migrant check-in facilities. Other suburbs were also seen loading illegals on buses to transport them to Chicago.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Chicago suburbs are crafting ordinances of their own to make it illegal to drop off homeless illegals in their jurisdictions.

To date, Aurora, Cicero, and Rosemont have already begun the process to head off buses of migrants and more collar cities are meeting on that very issue.

For his part, Mayor Johnson went on a tirade during a December 18 press conference and accused Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of “attacking America” by daring to send to Chicago a tiny number of the millions of illegals that have swamped the border thanks to Joe Biden’s border crisis.

After lecturing the media that migrants are “showing up sick” in Chicago, Johnson ripped into Abbott.

The issue is not just how we respond in the City of Chicago, it’s the fact that we have a governor — a governor, an elected official — in the State of Texas that is placing families on buses without shoes, cold, wet, tired, hungry, afraid, traumatized, and then they come to the City of Chicago where we have homelessness, we have mental health clinics that have been shut down and closed, you have people that are seeking employment.

“The governor of Texas needs to take a look in the mirror of the chaos he is causing for this country,” Johnson accused. “This is not just a Chicago dynamic. He is attacking our country. The sensibility and civility of our country — he is undermining that.”

The Chicago mayor is only succeeding in turning a blind eye to the chaos of the Biden administration’s border security and immigration policies that created record-setting illegal border crossings into Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and other border areas.

Abbott’s administration, though, righteously blasted back accusing Johnson of talking out of both sides of his mouth.

“Because Mayor Johnson is failing to live up to his city’s ‘Welcoming City’ ordinance by targeting migrant buses from Texas, we are expanding our operation to include flights to Chicago, like the Biden Administration has been doing across the country,” Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement. “Governor Abbott launched the border bus mission in April 2022 to provide support to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities as the Biden Administration leaves thousands of migrants in their towns.”

“Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue taking historic action to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis,” Mahaleris added.

Abbott also replied to the new bus restrictions by beginning to send illegals via private flights into Chicago’s airports.

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