Responding to the Migrant Crisis: Mayor Johnson’s Controversial Tent Proposal

Since his election in April, Brandon Johnson’s biggest challenge as the new mayor of Chicago has been dealing with the influx of migrants into the city. In the past 15 months, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders have bussed over 20,000 migrants to Chicago. Contrary to common anti-immigration rhetoric, most of the migrants are escaping the violence and economic crisis in Venezuela and are legally entering the country after requesting asylum. Of the 20,000 migrants, the city is actively caring for 14,000 individuals in shelters, while others are living at police stations or at O’Hare International Airport awaiting more permanent housing. 

In order to handle the growing migrant population, Johnson has proposed a variety of mitigation measures, including a proposal to build tents to house new migrants. Yet, due to controversy surrounding the tent proposal as well as the 2024 budget proposal, Johnson’s policies are raising questions about whether Chicago can adequately respond to this crisis alone.

The influx of migrants comes after months of Texas Governor Greg Abbott vowing to “provide much-needed relief to our overrun border communities.” However, many Democrats claim that Abbott’s plan serves more of a political purpose than a humanitarian one as he relocates migrants to cities with Democratic leadership, including New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and, of course, Chicago. In October, Johnson announced that he planned to visit the Texas border to meet with Governor Abbott to coordinate bus times and get a better handle on the situation. However, Johnson decided to send a small delegation instead and remain in Chicago to prioritize handling the crisis, hoping to add “shelter space to house thousands of new arrivals currently sleeping in police stations, airports or outside.”

Johnson originally proposed his plan to build tents throughout the city in September, following in the footsteps of similar projects in other major cities like New York. Since last year, over 110,000 migrants have arrived in New York, and to adapt to the increasing demand for housing, the city opened a tent shelter on Randall’s Island, an island between Manhattan and Queens. The new facility can hold up to 2,000 people, and the city announced that they plan to use it to house single adults in shelters in order to keep families together. The facility has been successful in relieving the stress on traditional shelters and increasing the city’s capacity for incoming migrants. Johnson’s proposal aims to achieve a similar goal, but his plan has been highly controversial.

A point of contention regarding Johnson’s proposal is his partnership with GardaWorld Federal Services. The defense security firm, which Johnson paid $29 million to help build tents in Chicago, is infamous for its detention centers for unaccompanied migrant children in Texas that suffered from reports of substandard living conditions, a lack of food and clean clothes, and reports of sexual assault. Additionally, the firm was originally set to partner with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to help push migrants into Democratic cities. While the contract in Florida never went into effect, Chicago’s progressive aldermen and even Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker condemned Johnson’s partnership with GardaWorld. The governor’s opposition came as a shock to the public since Pritzker and Johnson have largely presented a unified front throughout the crisis thus far. As a result of the sharp criticism, Johnson’s controversial partnership has slowed the implementation of his tent proposal as more aldermen and community members oppose the project.

Since the plan’s proposal in September, new arrivals have grown by over 25 percent, yet the city has failed to build any new tents, and the number of unhoused migrants continues to increase. With winter arriving and bringing with it subzero temperatures, finding shelters for new migrants is becoming increasingly critical. 

For Johnson, another significant challenge lies in finding suitable locations for these tents. When he first proposed his plan, Johnson asked each alderman to scout two or three potential locations within their wards. The only requirements for a location were that it could house 200 people, had showers available or could be compatible with a shower trailer, and had little need for repairs. Since some progressive aldermen opposed Johnson’s contract with GardaWorld and others did not want a tent for migrants within their wards, worrying that a tent would add a large financial burden on their communities, only 25 percent of aldermen responded to Johnson’s request. 

Due to this lack of a collective response, Johnson’s administration decided on a couple of possible locations, including Brighton Park and Morgan Park. The tent proposals in both locations have been met with intense opposition from local communities. In fact, community protests and resistance from Ronnie Mosley, the alderman in charge of the 21st Ward, which includes Morgan Park, have resulted in the City Council delaying the vote to approve the Morgan Park winterized tent. The plan has since been put aside after Governor Pritzker announced he would no longer fund the project. 

The debate over the Morgan Park tent highlights the division between Chicago communities regarding the migrant crisis as a whole. Given Chicago’s range of diverse communities and political divisions, it comes as no surprise that the city’s aldermen do not agree on how to address the migrant crisis. Nevertheless, 10 aldermen have already stated that they will vote no on Johnson’s proposal. These 10 represent different regions of the city with distinctive priorities. A major concern for downtown Aldermen is that tents could decrease tourism in the city, while Black Aldermen across the entire city are concerned that supporting migrants could take away resources from Black residents. These specific concerns have strongly resonated with a number of activists bearing similar concerns about whether Johnson is leaving Chicago’s Black community behind. Jessica Jackson, a community organizer, pointed out during a protest in late September that while the Chicago government recognizes the influx of migrants as a humanitarian crisis, they have not demonstrated a similar degree of sympathy for Black communities that have suffered from crises in housing, employment, and education.

The migrant crisis has disproportionately impacted Black neighborhoods, especially because these areas already lack sufficient funding for schools, health clinics, and other crucial social services. The impact has been especially severe in Chicago Public Schools, where enrollment has increased by 1,000 students in the past year, the greatest jump in enrollment in over a decade. Additionally, in 2023, 7,800 more students are classified as English learners. Districts are having trouble providing for additional students, especially those who are learning English, given the school system’s limited bilingual faculty and resources. Historically, underfunded districts, many of which are in Black communities, have been hit the hardest by these strains on the school system since many are already over-enrolled with few resources to help existing students. Throughout his campaign, Johnson vowed not to take away funding from Black communities while also protecting incoming migrants. 

Nevertheless, Johnson has pulled funding from one of former Mayor Lightfoot’s initiatives that aimed to help struggling neighborhoods on the South and West sides of Chicago, the INVEST South/West Initiative, which planned to provide up to $2.2 billion to struggling neighborhoods. Lightfoot hoped the funds would support the expansion and improvement of public housing, the creation of more public spaces, and aid small businesses. Administrators intended to draw funds through various government agencies, corporations, community groups, and philanthropic organizations over several years. However, in Johnson’s recent budget proposal, there is no mention of the INVEST South/West Initiative, suggesting that, temporarily, he is abandoning the project to divert funds towards his tent proposal.

In addition to contention from Chicago’s Black communities, Johnson’s budget proposal has raised questions about whether the city has enough money to adequately respond to the crisis. The 2024 budget proposal set aside $150 million for caring for migrants, which is less than half of the projected response costs for the rest of 2023. This will offer a new challenge to Johnson as he will be forced to rely more on state and federal funding. The crisis has already been a major financial burden on Chicago’s budget, with $200 million added to the $538 million city budget deficit since the crisis began. This financial toll will directly impact taxpayers, as the crisis is projected to cost them $361 million in 2023 alone. Given that Johnson did not allocate adequately for his major mitigation efforts like winterized tent construction if state or federal agencies do not provide the city with funds to compensate for this deficit, taxes will likely increase. Johnson’s other alternative, which he has already tapped into, is cutting social services and other government programs that support already struggling neighborhoods. 

Beyond solving the migrant housing crisis, Johnson’s budget proposal calls for the reallocation of funds from the Department of Human Services to create welcome centers, including a recently opened intake center near Union Station, in addition to the establishment of an Office of New Arrivals to specifically address the crisis. As of now, it is unclear as to how Johnson plans to either lower response costs to match the budget he set aside or get external funding. 

Thus far, Illinois has provided Chicago with funds, but even that might not be sufficient for the rest of 2023 and into 2024. Although the state gave the city $330 million in 2022 and another $30 million this year, Johnson requested the passage of a supplemental budget amendment that would redirect more state funding toward mitigating the migrant crisis. Governor Pritzker has yet to address Johnson’s request, but he requested additional support from the federal government. In early October, Pritzker asked President Biden for federal funding to support the untenable influx of migrants into Illinois. Biden has since sent the Department of Homeland Security to assess the situation, but Chicago has still not received federal funding.

Countless community activists, aldermen, and other government officials throughout Illinois have called for federal support to address this growing humanitarian crisis. Johnson’s first deputy chief of staff, Pacione Zayas, echoed this sentiment in early October, declaring that the crisis “should not just be on the shoulders of Chicago.” The efficacy of Johnson's tent proposal is crucial, especially during a brutal winter. Federal funding is perhaps the easiest way for Johnson to carry out his plan and settle opposition from communities that fear that Johnson would deny them even more resources in order to support incoming migrants. Given Johnson’s struggles to build winterized tents, prioritize the migrant crisis without undermining the needs of minority communities, and allocate an appropriate amount of the budget to achieve his goals, it is likely that Johnson turned to the federal government. While the city of Chicago welcomes migrants with open arms, it likely cannot carry the load alone.

The image featured in this article is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. No changes were made to the original image, which was taken by Raimond Spekking and can be found here.