Illegal immigrants have been relocated from Chicago’s O’Hare International and Midway Airports after a probe by the Senate Commerce Committee into federal resources spent on their stay.
The committee, led by Senator Ted Cruz, launched an inquiry into migrants’ housing at the airports in late January. Their displacement reportedly occurred quietly a week after Mayor Brandon Johnson received a letter from the committee, but neither Johnson’s office nor the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) responded to queries regarding the migrants’ new location.
Senate Republican Commerce Committee spokeswoman Melissa Braid has accused Mayor Johnson of withholding information about the migrant situation at Chicago airports from Congress and taxpayers.
Previously, the floors of the airports were littered with migrants, presenting significant challenges to public safety and public health. Moves to host migrants in local police stations resulted in some having to be shut down as the migrants began spreading diseases such as scabies.
Border sheriffs have reported encountering migrants with other diseases “like tuberculosis, scabies, COVID, hepatitis A and B, gonorrhea, syphilis, mumps, chicken pox, [and] dengue fever,” with outbreaks at airports having the potential to spread such illnesses nationally and even worldwide.
A $150 million emergency migrant response fund set aside by Mayor Johnson for this year is projected to be exhausted by April. He has requested nearly $5 billion in federal aid to alleviate the crisis.
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