Seventy-five migrants who arrived in Texas had been dropped off at Chicago’s Union Station on Wednesday evening, officers mentioned.

Ryan Johnson, a consultant for Mayor Lori Lightfoot, confirmed the data.

“Chicago is a welcoming metropolis and as such has collaborated throughout numerous departments and businesses to make sure we greeted them with dignity and respect,” mentioned Johnson in a tweet. “We perceive that many are fleeing violent, traumatic, or in any other case unstable environments,” he added in an hooked up assertion.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott introduced the arrival of the “first group” of migrants bused to Chicago in a separate assertion Wednesday evening.

In his assertion, Abbott mentioned that along with Washington, D.C., and New York Metropolis, Chicago will now be a drop-off location for the busing technique as a part of his response to President Joe Biden’s “open border insurance policies overwhelming border communities in Texas.”

Johnson mentioned the town “will reply with important providers whereas these people navigate the subsequent steps of their journey and our group companions have been working diligently to offer a security internet.”

Round 9 p.m. alongside the Canal Road aspect of the station, a gaggle of about 15 individuals, a few of whom had been from Venezuela and had been ready for an additional bus, had been standing or sitting on a sidewalk. Some had been their telephones as others had been talking to one another and to a Tribune reporter.

Most had been males, however there was one girl along with her younger daughter and husband. They had been ready to be picked up and brought to a shelter, they informed the Tribune reporter.

After greater than 12 hours of journey from Texas, 3-year-old Danieli Cataleya Salazar, sat on the bottom exterior Union Station consuming a nectarine along with her pregnant mom as they waited for transportation to a shelter to relaxation for the evening. Earlier than arriving to Chicago, that they had traveled for 2 months from Venezuela, mentioned the kid’s mom, Ana Julia Ramirez Duran.

Ramirez Duran, 22, who’s eight months pregnant with a boy, and her husband, Elier Salazar Chacon, 29, and their daughter fled poverty and an authoritarian regime, they informed the Tribune. She shared the bag of nectarines a Chicago police officer had given her with the others.

Hungry with swollen toes, Ramirez Duran mentioned that she and her husband determined emigrate north, desperately looking for a possibility to discover a good job that may enable them to offer for his or her youngsters. They mentioned they didn’t come up with the money for to purchase meals for his or her household and it was troublesome to search out employment of their nation.

One among no less than two Chicago cops who stood close by informed the Tribune there was a a lot bigger group of migrants who had boarded a bus and had already left Union Station.

“As a metropolis, we’re doing every part we will to make sure these immigrants and their households can obtain shelter, meals, and most significantly safety.” Johnson mentioned in his assertion. He added, “Sadly, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is with none disgrace or humanity. However ever since he put these racist practices of expulsion in place, we’ve been working with our group companions to prepared the town to obtain these people.”

Different Venezuelan immigrants who arrived on the identical bus from Texas shared an analogous story.

”We’re drained and hungry, like every other human being,” one mentioned. “Are you able to assist me?” he requested a Tribune reporter.

Most of the migrants ready carried a transparent plastic bag with their paperwork and small possessions. Few had cell telephones and most had a bit of paper the place that they had written telephone numbers of people that would possibly be capable to assist them.

”We simply need a spot to sleep tonight,” mentioned Jose Rios, 40, as different Venezuelan males surrounded him. All of them met on their journey from Texas to Chicago, they mentioned.

“We’re so hungry however don’t know the place to go or what to do,” mentioned Rios, who left his three youngsters and spouse again in his native nation. He mentioned he migrated as a result of the poverty in Venezuela is excessive. ”We simply wish to work now — have a dignified life,” he mentioned.

Whereas some migrants had been in a position to join with their households or individuals they know in Chicago, most didn’t have contacts within the space and had been picked up by native activists who collaborated with the town to move them to a shelter.

After listening to from a fellow activist that the migrants had arrived in Chicago, Baltazar Enriquez from the Little Village Group Council rushed to the Union Station to determine how they may assist.

”Little Village is just like the door of immigrants, so we’re more than pleased to assist them restart their life, be sure that they’re protected and wholesome,” Enriquez mentioned.

Quickly after, a number of residents from the Little Village group arrived with automobiles to move the migrants. However the group was redirected when police on the scene knowledgeable them that one other bus was on its strategy to take the group that was left to the identical shelter the place the others had been taken.

After an excellent Samaritan introduced burgers from McDonald’s for them, a CTA bus pulled up round 10 p.m. The migrants boarded the bus, which left the station round 10:20 p.m.

Shortly earlier than 11 p.m., the migrants, together with cops and a handful of obvious officers, disembarked on the Salvation Military Freedom Heart at 825 N. Christiana Ave.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot visited the shelter and confirmed {that a} whole of 75 migrants arrived to Chicago from Texas on two buses.

”We acquired households, single males, a mixture of people from Latin America bused right here inhumanly from Texas,” Lightfoot mentioned exterior the Salvation Military shelter.

“Our metropolis is ready. We’re a welcoming metropolis, and what we’ve seen is an incredible outpouring, not solely from metropolis authorities, but additionally various completely different non-for-profit which might be a part of our community of care,” she mentioned, thanking the Salvation Military and the Resurrection Challenge, amongst different organizations which might be collaborating with the town to help the migrants.

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Lightfoot mentioned that over the subsequent few days, the town and native organizations will work to determine what the particular wants are for the migrants, including that what Abbott is doing is “immoral, unpatriotic and it defies the values of who we’re as People. We are able to disagree on coverage and politics, however you don’t deal with individuals this fashion.”

Late Wednesday, Governor J.B. Pritzker mentioned in an announcement that “Illinois welcomes refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants and we’re working with federal and metropolis officers to make sure that these people are handled with respect and security as they give the impression of being to attach with their household and pals.”

“My great-grandfather got here to this nation as an immigrant fleeing Ukraine in 1881,” Pritzker mentioned within the assertion. “Immigrants similar to my household looking for freedom and alternative constructed this nation. Illinois is and has at all times been a welcoming state.”

Lightfoot has been an outspoken advocate for immigrants’ rights since turning into mayor in 2019 and has not been shy about defending Chicago on the nationwide stage. She clashed with former President Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Illinois Republican candidate for governor Darren Bailey.

Months after being elected, Lightfoot crashed a information convention held by the Chicago ICE director, the place she appeared with a gaggle of immigration activists and known as Director Robert Guadian’s criticism of the town’s sanctuary ordinance “nonsense.”

The mayor later pushed a revision to Chicago’s Welcoming Metropolis ordinance that prohibited police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities to deport immigrants dwelling within the nation with out authorized permission who’ve legal backgrounds. She has additionally gone on strolling excursions in Chicago neighborhoods with giant immigrant populations the place she handed out “know your rights” fliers.

“I hope that that is all price it,” migrant Ramirez Duran mentioned. “However tonight, I simply hope we will discover a place to sleep.”