When President Joe Biden announced his executive order restricting asylum seekers this week, he stood with a phalanx of politicians from the southern U.S. border to highlight the dire situation there.
But up north, the implications for Chicago are just as significant, given that Biden’s move came less than three months before the arrival of the Democratic National Convention.
Many have predicted Republicans such as Texas Gov. Abbott would pounce on the opportunity to increase the number of migrant buses sent to Chicago in order to embarrass the liberal city during the high-profile event and try to weaken Biden in his rematch against Donald Trump. Limiting asylum-seekers’ entry into the U.S. before then could make it more difficult for Abbott and others to follow through on that gambit.
Biden’s policy is designed to drastically curtail the number of migrants seeking asylum at the southern border by halting illegal crossings during periods of high traffic, such as right now. In Chicago — ground zero for how the nation’s recent migrant crisis has played out — political leaders and advocates had mixed reactions to the move.
The divisions reflect an ongoing tug-of-war between progressive and centrist blocs in the Democratic Party, a coalition that’s already showing strain as left-leaning party members rip Biden for his handling of the Israel-Gaza war.
Mayor Brandon Johnson issued a statement Wednesday that neither endorsed nor condemned Biden’s new asylum restrictions, keeping in line with his reluctance to publicly criticize the president. He instead sought to place blame with Congress, where House Republicans turned down proposals to deal with the situation.
“As President Joe Biden has said, our reliance on a nearly 40-year-old immigration process is inadequate for effectively and humanely addressing today’s challenges,” Johnson wrote in a Tuesday statement. “It is time for Congress to finally work with President Biden to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and create fair and functional policies for our country.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker told reporters Wednesday that Biden’s executive order was “imperfect” but rejected the premise that it was election-year politicking.
“In my view, we now have a proposal from the president that is, again, it’s not a perfect solution,” Pritzker said. “We’d like the Congress to take action, but the Republican-controlled House is unwilling to do so. … And so, the president is using whatever tools he has to do what is necessary.”
About 43,000 asylum seekers have made their way to Chicago since 2022, when Abbott sent his first migrant buses north. The resultant humanitarian crisis at one point saw impoverished migrant families sleeping outside Chicago police stations and became a lightning rod for GOP criticism of Biden’s immigration record.
Now, with the White House taking its boldest action on border enforcement yet, local leaders in the city that will serve as the backdrop to the convention celebrating Biden’s nomination are also attacking him from the left. Though Johnson has opted to tread more carefully as he prepares for his role as Chicago’s biggest cheerleader during the DNC, the same could not be said about his most vocal surrogates.
Johnson’s handpicked Housing Committee chair, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, continued to voice disapproval with the Biden administration following the executive order announcement.
“It’s critical that President Biden understands that following the recipe of fascists like Trump is not going to yield results,” Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, said Wednesday. “He’s playing into Trump’s playbook, which is, create chaos for political gain, chaos that has been created throughout Latin America and chaos that is now here in our country.”
Sigcho-Lopez’s earlier reproach of the Biden administration landed him in hot water when colleagues in April attempted to censure him for speaking at a demonstration against the DNC and Gaza war that included a veteran torching an American flag. Though the vote to punish him failed, the saga forced Johnson to address questions on whether this much intraparty strife unfolding in the backyard of the DNC would hurt Biden’s reelection chances.
U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, too issued a statement this week calling Biden’s move “politically motivated.”
“This renewed ban is bad policy, since evidence suggests asylum bans simply do not work. It is also bad politics, since it attempts to mimic Trump-like policies,” Garcia wrote on Tuesday. “Instead of enacting cruel and ineffective policies, we must remain committed to creating a fair and human asylum system that welcomes people who come to our country.”
Garcia, whose district includes the heavily Latino Southwest Side of Chicago, instead called for Biden to equip the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with the resources to process asylum applications at a faster rate. He also said the White House should provide relief for longtime immigrants too.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, who represents the Northwest Side of Chicago and northwest suburbs, echoed the disappointment in a statement also comparing the policy to Trump.
Not all local Democrats expressed dismay over Biden, however. Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, said the outcome was not ideal “but Congress has failed to address a comprehensive immigration plan. And what we’re seeing is the president being the adult in the room.”
“That’s the frustrating part within the Democratic Party,” Villegas said. “We’re a big tent, but we have to understand that at some point, there needs to be decisions made that are not going to be very popular. … It’s unfortunate that the folks from the left — the far-left, the extreme left of the Democratic Party — are trying to compare President Biden to Trump.”
Local immigration advocacy groups in Chicago shook their heads at the action they said harkened back to the previous president, who in 2018 utilized the same immigration law Biden is leaning on now to try to ban asylum seekers from the southern border. As with what unfolded in the wake of Trump’s actions back then, Biden’s new order is likely to receive legal challenges.
Lawrence Benito, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said Biden’s policy showed “disregard for those seeking safety as well as those who have stepped up against cynical tactics from anti-immigrant governors.” He and other advocates also noted the time was now to pressure Biden to use his executive authority to issue work permits for undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for much longer.
Ald. Michael Rodriguez, 22nd, who represents the Southwest Side Little Village neighborhood, said Biden’s order was not the solution Chicagoans were seeking when they called on the federal government to take responsibility for the burden local municipalities like Chicago were shouldering during the migrant crisis.
“The president should think twice about who his base really is,” said Rodriguez, Johnson’s handpicked chair of the Workforce Development Committee. “I’m really disheartened by this move. I’m upset and I expect more. And I hope this doesn’t cost the President at the ballot box more than he thinks it helps him.”
Another member of Johnson’s City Council leadership team, Immigration Committee chair Ald. Andre Vasquez, questioned whether the policy was simply border security theater during a heated presidential race.
“It seems incredibly cynical, given that the election is around the corner,” Vasquez, 40th, said. “Now as you see public statements from folks, it does fracture the party. … Trying to make the case of Chicago and how we Democrats are a party that celebrates our cultural diversity and welcomes immigrants, I think ends up ringing a little more hollow.”
Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations at the southern border are unsure whether Biden’s decision to limit illegal crossings at the border will actually curb the number of new arrivals to Chicago, said Haniel Lopez, senior program officer for Search for Common Ground Mexico.
Lopez, who works with migrants in the border town of Juarez, Mexico, said human trafficking operations are at an all-time high and he believes those fleeing their home countries will just find other ways to enter the U.S. — but at the expense of their safety and well-being. That makes Biden’s actions “more a political movement than actually seeing people for what they are,” he said.
“It makes us feel like the U.S. is sending us their crisis,” Lopez said. “This decision is going to put the migrant community in a very vulnerable position.”
The Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed reporting.
