Hundreds of Illegal Immigrants Temporarily Sheltering at O’Hare International Airport, Police Stations: Reports

Chicago O'Hare International Airport on March 7, 2018. Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

Hundreds of illegal immigrants are staying in “inhumane” makeshift shelters at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, as well as in police stations across the city, as authorities continue to struggle to find more permanent housing solutions, according to reports.

The airport, one of the busiest in the nation, is currently housing more than 400 illegal immigrants, law enforcement officials confirmed to NewsNation.

That is nearly four times more than the capacity limit set by the city, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, despite the fact the airport is supposedly meant to be just a temporary holding place, Vianney Marzullo, a lead volunteer with the Police Station Response Team advocacy group, told the publication.

Video footage obtained by NewsNation shows the illegal immigrants sleeping on the airport’s floors on flimsy-looking mats and cardboard covered in thin sheets behind what appears to be a large black curtain, cutting it off from other visitors to the airport.

Some illegal immigrants told the publication they were concerned about their well-being sleeping on the airport floor, noting that conditions are overcrowded and many of them are children who are not being given enough food.

“While they find another place for us to go, some have been here for 10 days. But people keep leaving and the city of Chicago will take us and will find a place for us to stay,” Rayberth, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who says he has been staying at the makeshift shelter in the airport for four days, told NewsNation.

“No one likes to live here. It’s just a process that we have to wait for to be called and then we can leave. You are not going to be there for months, you are only going to be there for days while the city finds a place for you,” Rayberth added.

Illegal Immigrants Sheltering in Police Stations

The airport isn’t the only place currently housing illegal immigrants, according to reports.

Roughly 1,500 illegal immigrants have been sleeping at police stations throughout the city in recent weeks, according to ABC 7 News.

As the city continues to buckle under the weight of the illegal immigrant influx, officials are now considering various other temporary housing options, including a five-story, 50,000-square-foot office building, according to the publication.

“It’s not the first property that they’ve explored and just because they’ve explored doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s gonna happen so we’re waiting to see what’s gonna happen,” Chicago City Council member Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. said.

“We want to try to help as much as possible without disturbing the people in the neighborhood, without messing with the quality of life for the folks that live in the neighborhood,” Mr. Burnett added.

The possible use of the office— effectively a loft located next to a daycare center—for illegal immigrant housing is not being welcomed by everyone.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks to guests after taking the oath of office in Chicago on May 15, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images

City to Provide ‘Base Camps’

“Once you pierce the curtain of having businesses and manufacturing in the area, you bring residential in. It’s not going backward,” Brian Flanagan, a business owner working in close proximity to the potential office space, told ABC.

Roughly 13,000 illegal immigrants have arrived in the city, and approximately 6,400 of them have taken to shelter, according to city officials.

Another four buses full of illegal immigrants arrived in Chicago on Wednesday, according to city officials, while one more bus arrived Thursday.

A city spokesperson told the Chicago Sun-Times that officials are “working to open additional shelters in order to provide temporary shelter for asylum-seekers arriving daily.”

Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told ABC7 Chicago on Thursday that the city plans to have “base camps” established within weeks to house the illegal immigrants, adding that officials are continuing to purchase or repurpose multiple facilities before the end of the year.

“We have had more buses show up in the last 15 weeks than all of last year combined; I don’t think we should continue to look at this as a crisis. This is our reality,” Mr. Johnson said.

“If we do not act in this moment, if we do not live out our values and our principles as a city, the type of chaos that will break out as a result of not having any action will cost the city much more,” the mayor added.