In a chaotic meeting Thursday, South Shore residents demanded city officials house immigrants arriving in Chicago on the North Side rather than at a shuttered local school, saying the resources being spent to help them should instead be invested on the South Side.
Officials were prepared to deliver a presentation on the shelter plan at the meeting, which was held at South Shore International College Prep, but as it was set to begin, they were drowned out by audience members yelling, “We don’t care” and “We don’t want them here.”
Others yelled, “Send them back” and “Close the border.” Someone in the crowd held up a sign that read, “Build the wall 2024.”
The elected officials could barely get a word in as residents expressed their anger over the plan.
People are concerned about crime and the fact that they weren’t consulted on the idea before it began to move forward.
Those in the audience who wanted to hear the city’s plan implored the crowd to settle down and be respectful. At one point, a person was taken into custody by police and then quickly released after tearing up the “build the wall” sign and getting into an altercation with the person who brought it.
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Photos captured from the event:
Before the meeting, a small group held a protest outside of the school demanding the energy put into the migrant issue…be put into their neighborhoods.
“It is a slap in the face that we as citizens of the United States of America do not have the resources and support but you’re gonna bring people who are not citizens here in our community in our buildings that we pay taxes for that you took away from us?” said Natasha Dunn. “That is completely unacceptable. We are in a humanitarian crisis right now. So Black people in Chicago are bleeding on the streets!”
Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson was also asked about the migrant crisis.
“We have a responsibility to make sure that families that are seeking love and support in Chicago and in Illinois, that they are not just welcome but serviced,” said Johnson.
