On Thursday’s “CNN News Central,” Chicago Alderman Brian Hopkins said that the city simply can’t handle any more migrants, and as a result of the migrant influx in the city, “We’re seeing crime go up, property values go down” and “We’re seeing communities destabilized.” Hopkins further stated, “I’m a Democrat, but I’ll say the Biden administration has absolutely dropped the ball,” and “every day that goes by while we let the border remain open and while we let cities try to address this humanitarian crisis, it gets worse by the day.”
Hopkins said, “We’re seeing communities destabilized. We’re seeing an influx of new residents who simply don’t have a place to reside. The impact of the local shelters is having a detrimental effect on the quality of life for local residents. We’re seeing crime go up, property values go down. It’s creating a political crisis, as well as stress between communities. … We desperately need decompression in Chicago. We’ve got 30,000 migrants. We simply can’t handle any more. We’re not equipped for it.”
He added that a decompression strategy would include some migrants getting work permits and help providing permanent housing for migrants.
Hopkins concluded, “I’m a Democrat, but I’ll say the Biden administration has absolutely dropped the ball, I’m not going to let them off the hook. They have left us in the ditch with this, and that’s unacceptable. What I’m hearing now is encouraging, we needed to hear this a year ago when this crisis first started in Chicago, we had a trickle that led to a torrent, and now we’re spending 300 million of our own funds, that’s about 5% of our federal municipal budget to address a problem that didn’t even exist a year a half ago, where’s the federal government been? Where has the Biden administration been? It’s not too late to do the right thing, but every day that goes by while we let the border remain open and while we let cities try to address this humanitarian crisis, it gets worse by the day. And I’ve lost patience, as you can probably tell.”
Hopkins’s remarks come after New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D) held a virtual press conference in which they urged the Biden administration to increase federal support to handle the migrant influx.
Johnson has said the influx into Chicago is “not sustainable” without “significant federal support.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
