O’HARE — More than 800 migrants are staying at O’Hare Airport — more than double the number of people who were staying there just a week ago.
The city is seeing a record number of buses with migrants coming to Chicago, while the number of people arriving by plane has also jumped, both increases coming as the city is already struggling to find space in its shelters for the new arrivals.
O’Hare’s bus shuttle center, across the street from the Hilton hotel and near Terminal 1, is one of Chicago’s 24 temporary shelters, called “staging areas.” Migrants are taken to one of the staging areas while they wait for a place inside one of the 23 city-run shelters.
More of them are having to wait at O’Hare as police stations, which are also staging areas, have become overcrowded. As of Friday morning, there were 828 people at O’Hare — up from 363 on Sept. 27, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
The increase reflects a surge in the number of migrants being sent to Chicago, mostly by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott‘s administration.
All of the people staying at O’Hare arrived via plane, and there’s been an increase in the number of those arriving on planes, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, deputy chief of staff, said during a Thursday press briefing.
The planes bringing migrants to Chicago are primarily departing from Texas and Denver, but it’s unclear how many have arrived in total.
Around midday Thursday, families and other migrants were outside the bus shuttle shelter, enjoying the weather and eating snacks. Inside, piles of clothes, boxes and donated items leaned against the wall as people sat on chairs and laid on the floor, hidden behind a long, black curtain erected in a hallway.
A group of migrants standing outside the shelter said they’ve been at O’Hare for two to three weeks and are trying to remain patient. They said they’ve seen more people arrive in the past week. The men, who did not want their names published for safety reasons, said two to three planes carrying 160-170 people have been arriving daily.
Chicago started seeing planes of migrants arrive in April with little coordination by city agencies. Migrants told Block Club local groups gave them free tickets to the city.
Last month, Axios reported local organizations in Texas and Denver were using federal dollars to buy these plane tickets.
Many migrants arriving in Chicago on buses are from Venezuela, which has struggled with political upheaval and an economic crisis resulting in severe food and medicine shortages, surging inflation and rising unemployment and violent crime.
While some people coming to Chicago have family or friends to stay with, most go to the staging area, some migrants said Thursday.
“We just want to work and go to a shelter,” one of the men said in Spanish. “They have not told us when we are leaving here. … We have been here two weeks, just waiting with our kids.”
Some of the newest arriving migrants are in poor health, and the city has seen an increase in ambulance calls, Pacione-Zayas said. The men at O’Hare agreed and said they estimate almost 30 people from the shelter have gone to the hospital for treatment or medication needs this week.
“Every day, the ambulance is here taking people to the hospital,” one man said, adding that his child has been sick, too.
While the conditions have been extremely difficult and chaotic, the men said they’re grateful for volunteers who come to the bus shelter four times a week to drop off clothes, baby food and blankets. They also get taken to a mobile shower unit near the Jefferson Park police station three times a week, the men said.
Those who spoke to Block Club said they arrived from Texas, where they crossed the border after leaving their homes in Venezuela and Colombia. Texas officials gave them the option to take a plane to Denver, New York City or Chicago, they said. They chose Chicago because of its sanctuary city status, among other factors, they said.
“I picked Chicago because of its protections toward migrants and it’s a city that doesn’t discriminate toward us,” one man said. “The other cities are less welcoming to us and overcrowded.”
Another man said the O’Hare shelter has had migrants come from New York City, which has also seen an influx of asylum seekers and is struggling to find room for them.
New York has received more than 100,000 migrants over the past year, according to the Associated Press. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is taking a four-day trip to Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia to discourage migrants from seeking asylum in New York.
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced this week he also plans to visit the country’s southern border to assess the crisis.
National Response To Crisis Grows
As big cities grapple with where to house the increasing number of migrants, the Biden administration announced Thursday it will resume deportation flights to Venezuela while working on expanding legal pathways for asylum seekers, according to the AP.
Since buses and planes began arriving in Chicago last year, the city’s shelter system has been overwhelmed, leading thousands of people to sleep on the floors of police stations.
As of Friday morning, 2,526 people were staying in police stations across the city, according to data provided by a city spokesperson. Earlier this week, a city official said more than 9,600 people are in city shelters.
To get migrants out of police station lobbies, Johnson’s administration recently signed a $29 million contract with Virginia-based GardaWorld Federal Services and its subsidiary, Aegis Defense Services, to “provide temporary housing, on an as-needed basis” for migrants, records show.
That includes “base camp” tent shelters to house migrants, although no specific locations have been announced.
Johnson on Wednesday defended that contract, which has been criticized by some City Council members and activists, who have pointed out GardaWorld’s checkered history.
During Thursday’s press briefing, Pacione-Zayas also said the city is weighing whether to ask for assistance from the National Guard.
“Everything’s on the table,” she said.
Pacione-Zayas said shortly after Johnson was sworn in this spring, the administration looked into whether calling in the National Guard would be worth it, but it ultimately didn’t make sense.
“At the time, we were told we would have to foot the entire bill, and it was pretty significant. It was much more than even what we are paying [Favorite Healthcare Staffing] right now,” she said.
“We’re starting to explore what are the opportunities, what are the ways that we can have that subsidized by other levels of government? And then, concretely, what can they do that makes the most sense in this moment?”