Chicago leaders demand help from White House to deal with surge of migrants in city

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Now to the second of two reports from William Brangham on how northern cities are dealing with a surge of migrants from the southern border.

  Last night, William reported from New York. Tonight, he has the story from Chicago on the response there, as more migrants are getting bused and flown in by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott.

• William Brangham:

  It's move-in day on the South Side of Chicago. A team of movers with a local nonprofit is helping yet another migrant family start a new life, with a rented van, donated furniture and housing assistance for three months.

  Maria and her daughters, who asked me not to show their faces, fled Venezuela, crossed the Mexican border, declared asylum, and then were put on buses in Texas and sent north; 19-year-old Franck Marquez is their cousin. He too left Venezuela after they did, and they reconnected in Chicago.

• Franck Marquez, Venezuelan Migrant (through translator):

  More than anything, I left my country because of the security situation, to get to the United States and start a better future.

• William Brangham:

  It took him two months to get here, including four days walking through the treacherous Darien Gap in Central America before he arrived in Mexico and made his way to Chicago, where he was connected with local charities.

• Franck Marquez (through translator):

  They have given us a lot of support, not only me, but many other Venezuelans who are also trying to do the same thing, create a better future for themselves and their family.

• William Brangham:

  Scenes like this are playing out hundreds of times a day across Chicago, newly arrived migrants trying to start anew.

  Since August of 2022, an estimated 27,000, mostly from Venezuela, have come to Chicago. But to city officials coordinating and funding this unprecedented wave, it's proving to be a serious burden. City and state leaders have often been at odds over how to respond.

  Chicago's Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson has echoed the calls of other Northern big city mayors who are asking for more help from Washington.

  Brandon Johnson (D), Mayor of Chicago, Illinois: This is a national problem. It's an international problem. And the federal government has to do more.

• William Brangham:

  Chicago's shelter system is admittedly overwhelmed. The city's 3,500 shelter beds were nowhere near enough for the surge of new arrivals.

  Initially, migrants slept on the floors of police stations and in airports as the city built up capacity. But once it stood up temporary shelters, those were often criticized for being overcrowded and unsanitary. Just before Christmas, a 5-year-old boy died of what critics said was a treatable illness inside a city-contracted shelter.

  The city argues that many migrants are being sent to Chicago in already poor health.

• Britt Hodgon, Social Worker:

  This was a preventable death. This was also a predictable death.

• William Brangham:

  If I had said to you a year or so ago, here are the numbers you're going to be dealing with and here's where you're going to have to scale up at the pace you have to scale it up, what would you have said?

• Matt DeMateo, Executive Director, New Life Centers:

  I would have laughed out loud and not believed you.

• William Brangham:

  Matt DeMateo runs New Life Centers, a mostly Spanish-speaking faith-based group that is one of the many nonprofits in Chicago that's partnered with the city and state to help migrants as soon as they get off the bus.

  Before this current group arrived, New Life ran programs for young people in their community, along with a food pantry. Now they have dialed up a full-scale housing program.

• Matt DeMateo:

  In the last seven months, we have moved 2,000 families into apartments, about 8,000 people. And now, starting next week, we will be doing 55 moves per day, about 275 a week. So we will be doing 1,100 apartments per month.

• William Brangham:

  Wow. I mean, that's an incredible volume, even though you were doing none of this, really, a year ago.

• Matt DeMateo:

  Yes, we have had an amazing team step up. We built a system of trucks, movers, drivers, warehouse, partnership with the Chicago Furniture Bank, groups who have clothing, who have furniture.

• William Brangham:

  New Life operates this 20,000-square-foot warehouse full from floor to ceiling with donated goods and household supplies for newly arriving families.

  Meanwhile, the buses continue arriving from Texas. Chicago has now filed lawsuits against multiple bus companies hired by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, alleging they're refusing to follow new rules on coordinating the times and locations of drop-offs.

  One of the arguments that you have heard border governors and border leaders make is that they have been dealing with this for years now, and now they're trying to say, look, the rest of the country ought to deal with this as well.

• Matt DeMateo:

  Yes, I hear that argument. And I think — the first thing I think is, this is a federal issue. And the federal government needs to come in with appropriate resources. We're building the infrastructure with almost zero federal support. So this has been all state and city resources in Chicago and in Illinois building this ecosystem.

  And so we want them, we invite them. We're a welcoming city. But the resources and sustainable systems just aren't there.

• Dr. Evelyn Figueroa, Executive Co-Director, Pilsen Food Pantry:

  There's space for people. Chicago needs people to work.

• William Brangham:

  Dr. Evelyn Figueroa runs the Pilsen Food Pantry, a nonprofit that provides clothing, food and other services to migrants in the city.

  She says she understands the severity of the crisis, but says Chicago has the capacity to handle it.

• Dr. Evelyn Figueroa:

  With the migrants, it's 25,000 people. Our population is 2.8 million in Chicago. Are we really going to get, like, tossed apart by 25,000 people? Seriously? Of course not.

• William Brangham:

  What do you say to the people who argue that this is very costly and we can't afford that?

• Dr. Evelyn Figueroa:

  It is expensive when it's reactive. It's expensive when we don't develop systems. We are doing things the hard way, and it's harder for us too. It doesn't have to be like this. We have thousands of nonprofits in Chicago that are helping, but we're doing it like chickens without heads.

• William Brangham:

  Figueroa blames City Hall and the state government for poor coordination.

  One example, earlier this month, the state had to scrap a proposed migrant tent camp on a former industrial site because the soil was contaminated. The city lost close to a million dollars on that effort. Meanwhile, Governor Abbott has been posting new videos, now showing migrant families being flown from Texas to Illinois.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham in Chicago.