Police stations have become tent encampments. More than 800 migrants are sleeping at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. City officials are scrambling.
Public meetings to discuss opening shelters have turned into shouting matches, with residents accusing city officials of prioritizing the needs of new arrivals over longtime Chicagoans.
Deaundre Miguel Jones, 47, said he had watched with exasperation as the police station in his Old Town neighborhood turned into a place where migrants sleep on cots indoors and outside in camping tents.
Some eagerly boarded buses to Chicago at the southern border because they recognized the name of the city and assumed that it was large enough to offer opportunity and a place to work.
In interviews, several Venezuelans who had arrived recently said they had come to Chicago because they had distant relatives in the city or had heard from friends that it had robust social services.
But many said Chicago had become their destination simply because they were offered a free plane or bus ticket from previous shelters, where they arrived penniless and sleep deprived.
“We came here with one sole purpose: to work,” said Eudo Luis Ledezma, 41, who arrived in Chicago on Tuesday after a harrowing two-month journey that began in his hometown, Maracaibo, a city in northwestern Venezuela.
The original article contains 1,241 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Public meetings to discuss opening shelters have turned into shouting matches, with residents accusing city officials of prioritizing the needs of new arrivals over longtime Chicagoans.
Deaundre Miguel Jones, 47, said he had watched with exasperation as the police station in his Old Town neighborhood turned into a place where migrants sleep on cots indoors and outside in camping tents.
Some eagerly boarded buses to Chicago at the southern border because they recognized the name of the city and assumed that it was large enough to offer opportunity and a place to work.
In interviews, several Venezuelans who had arrived recently said they had come to Chicago because they had distant relatives in the city or had heard from friends that it had robust social services.
But many said Chicago had become their destination simply because they were offered a free plane or bus ticket from previous shelters, where they arrived penniless and sleep deprived.
“We came here with one sole purpose: to work,” said Eudo Luis Ledezma, 41, who arrived in Chicago on Tuesday after a harrowing two-month journey that began in his hometown, Maracaibo, a city in northwestern Venezuela.
The original article contains 1,241 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!