Shutterstock / Carrington Tatum
During his speech at the Republican National Convention, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to continue sending migrants to sanctuary cities.
On Tuesday, Chicago Deputy Mayor of Immigration Beatriz Ponce De Leon told reporters her city is bracing for 25,000 new migrant arrivals from Texas ahead of the DNC, according to the Chicago Tribune. The convention is being held Aug. 19-22 at the Windy City's United Center.
The scramble appears to be happening in response to a threat Abbott made to bus more migrants to Democrat-controlled cities during a fiery anti-immigrant speech he delivered at last week's Republican National Convention. In the address, the governor also falsely claimed that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had never visited the Texas border.
"When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refused to even come to Texas and to see the border crisis that they created, I took the border to them," Abbott said. "I began busing illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C., and we've continued busing migrants to sanctuary cities across the entire country. Those buses will continue to roll until we finally secure our border."
Abbott made no specific mention of Chicago or the DNC in his speech.
Just the same, Chicago officials are preparing for an influx and said they will continue their policy of evicting migrants from city-run shelters after 60 days, the Chicago Tribune reports. Ponce De Leon also told Axios Chicago the city is keeping 5,000 beds open.
During the height of the last year's surge in border crossings, about 2,000 migrants arrived in Chicago weekly, according to Windy City PBS affiliate WTTW. A total of 45,000 migrants have ended up in Chicago over the past two years, the Chicago Tribune reports.
In response to a Current inquiry about Chicago's preparations, Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said in an emailed statement that Texas will continue sending migrant buses to sanctuary cities.
"Until President Biden and Border Czar Harris step up and do their jobs to secure the border, Texas will continue busing migrants to sanctuary cities across the country like Chicago to provide much-needed relief to our overwhelmed border towns," Eze said.
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