Last week, Chicago declared war on Texas by passing an ordinance that required “rogue buses” to drop off migrants from the border at a specific location and only during approved times. The Texas bus drivers were dropping off migrants at several locations, including the Chicago suburbs at all hours of the day or night.
Penalties for violating the ordinance included fines, arrest of the drivers, and the impoundment of buses.
Texas Governor Abbott is escalating the war with Chicago by flying migrants to nearby Rockford and chartering buses to take them to Chicago.
Rockford authorities issued a statement saying in no uncertain terms that the migrants would not be welcome in their city.
“Once the plane lands, those onboard will offload and immediately board buses to Chicago’s ‘landing zone.’ Those on the plane will not exit the airport property at any time before boarding the buses,” a late Saturday joint statement from Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara, Winnebago County Board Chair Joe Ciarelli and other local officials said.
Abbott has simply ordered the buses to drop their passengers off in the suburbs and then give the migrants a Metra rail card or Amtrak tickets to continue their journey to Chicago.
This is happening as suburbs as far away as 90 miles are passing ordinances preventing buses from dropping their passengers off within their city limits.
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson wants two days advance notice of any buses arriving in the city and no extended stay in local motels.
“We’re going to suffer from something that we can have a conversation about. It’s not that we don’t want them here. It’s just, we have to plan,” Thompson said.
Thompson says it’s not that they won’t welcome the migrants — it’s just that they want them out of town as quickly as possible.
The village of Matteson, meanwhile, unanimously passed similar restrictions and consequences for “rogue” bus drivers and companies at an emergency meeting Thursday night.
“Basically, this is to provide safety for our community and safety for anyone visiting our community,” Matteson Village President Sheila Chalmers-Currin said.
And Oak Lawn is considering a plan to require local licenses to operate a bus within the village, on top of restricting extended stays at motels for migrants.
Last week, city leaders in Aurora also placed restrictions on migrant buses, as did Chicago Ridge and several others suburbs that have been drop-off points for migrants.
Why should a couple of states bear the entire brunt of more than 5 million migrants arriving in the United States in the last two years? Abbott hasn’t even sent 200,000 of the migrant surge to northern cities. Imagine if Abbott wanted to get serious about easing the burden on Texas border towns.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson can complain about Texas Governor Abbott all he wants. but it’s not going to change the fundamental fact that this was a problem brought about by the president’s border policies and the political gamesmanship of declaring Chicago and other northern Democratic-run cities as illegal alien sanctuaries.
It’s now blown up in their face, and they can only blame others for their stupidity.