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The Republican mayor of a suburban Chicago town is calling out Windy City Mayor Lori Lightfoot after over 60 migrants were shipped to his town and dropped off at a local hotel.
After being bussed from Texas, 147 migrants arrived in Chicago on Wednesday, according to FOX 32. Sixty-four of those migrants were then taken to a Hampton Inn hotel in Burr Ridge, which is outside of Chicago, where they will be for at least the next 27 days.
Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso, a Republican, told Fox News that the migrants are being used as “political pawns” by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker.
“As is my understanding, this hotel, about a year ago, when refugees came in from Afghanistan, apparently accepted several either through faith-based or charitable organizations, but now the state assumes they can just send migrants… this isn’t about them, the migrants is fine, they’re being used as political pawns by the governor and mayor,” Grasso said.
ILLINOIS MAYOR ‘UNHAPPY,’ SAYS CHICAGO OFFICIALS FAILED TO INFORM HIM ABOUT MIGRANTS SENT TO TOWN
Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso (Left) and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (Right). (FOX 32 and Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Grasso also said it’s hypocritical for Lightfoot to be complaining about Texas Governor Greg Abbott sending migrants to Chicago, then turning around and “sending [the migrants] out to the” suburbs.
“We’re more than happy for people to find freedom, it is hypocrisy by the mayor of Chicago to complain about the governor of Texas – I do agree with what he’s doing – the city of Chicago says it’s going to be a sanctuary city which I oppose – but there must be vacant hotel rooms in Chicago. This is hundreds of people in a city of millions. Why are they sending them out to the Republican suburbs? You have to wonder,” Grasso said.
He said that just because the specific Hampton Inn was used to previously house refugees from Afghanistan “does not give carte blanche to the governor or the mayor to send a couple of bus loads of migrants to our village without telling us.”
The migrants who were taken to Burr Ridge will stay at a Hampton Inn for at least 30 days. (FOX 32)
“The border situation on the southern border is a totally different situation than Afghan refugees. It’s total arrogance for the state to assume they can send migrants to the suburbs around Chicago,” Grasso said.
A spokesperson for the village of Burr Ridge told NBC5 that the migrants were originally at the Salvation Army Shield of Hope in Chicago, then transported to the Hampton Inn.
According to the report, a statement from the Illinois Department of Human Services reads that the migrants are “receiving temporary shelter in urban and suburban hotels that have provided refuge for vulnerable families from Afghanistan and other parts of the world. We are grateful for the hospitality and care they have received from individuals and organizations across Illinois.”
“We will continue taking action to ensure everyone in Illinois has access to shelter, food, healthcare, and other basic, essential supports,” reads the statement. “We anticipate that the State of Texas will continue to bus migrants to Illinois, and we remain committed to helping welcome new arrivals in a responsible, orderly and compassionate way.”
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a City Council meeting on July 20, 2022/Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at the Republican Party of Texas State Convention at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. (Getty Images)
Lightfoot has criticized Abbott multiple times and has said that he lacks “any morals, humanity or shame.”
“Let me say loud and clear to Greg Abbott and his enablers in Texas with these continued political stunts, Gov. Abbott has confirmed what unfortunately many of us had known already, that he is a man without any morals, humanity or shame,” Lightfoot said during a Sept. 1 press conference.
