As Chicago hosts the Democratic National Convention, the anticipated surge of migrants into the city has not materialized. Despite concerns about buses arriving from Texas, city officials have confirmed that no such influx has occurred during the convention dates. The last reported arrival of a migrant bus in Chicago was June 17, with around 5,500 immigrants currently housed across city and state-operated shelters, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Preparations had been made by local mutual aid groups, including the 19th Ward Mutual Aid which, wary of the potential surge, stockpiled 200 'emergency bags' and other essentials like tents and sleeping bags for asylum-seekers. Tim Noonan, executive director of the organization, expressed dissatisfaction with the use of migrants as political tools, telling the Chicago Sun-Times, "The governor of Texas uses these families and children as weapons,” he said. “They try to weaponize them by saying, ‘Oh, we are going to slam you guys with a bunch of buses.’ It’s not in a humanitarian way whatsoever."
Officials had initially braced for the possibility of thousands of migrants heading to Chicago, with Mayor Brandon Johnson's deputy mayor for immigration, Beatriz Ponce de León, predicting as many as 25,000 might arrive due to the DNC. However, she recently acknowledged that “We at this point do not have any credible intel that there will be a large surge in terms of buses coming from Texas,” per information shared with the Chicago Tribune.
The decline in migrant arrivals coincides with President Joe Biden's executive order restricting border crossings, which has led to fewer migrants crossing at the U.S. southern border. This decrease has been reflected nationally, with apprehensions at the southwest border dropping significantly. "What we do know is that fewer migrants are crossing into the U.S. at the southern border since President (Joe) Biden's executive order was implemented," Brian Berg, a spokesman for the city's Department of Family and Support Services, told the Chiago Sun-Times.
