By Daniella Silva -
NBC News
Chicago will move forward next Sunday with a previously delayed plan to evict thousands of immigrants from city and state-run shelters, a move that has been met with outrage by immigrant advocates. and some local elected officials.
The measure
has been received with confusion by immigrants
, who will have to fight to find other housing or risk being left on the streets.
Municipal authorities reported this Friday that 2,026 people will be evicted from the shelters where they reside by the end of April.
The first 35 people will have to leave their shelter on Sunday.
In total, 244 migrants will be evicted at the end of the month and the remaining 1,782 will have to leave the facilities during the month of April.
The influx of immigrants to Chicago, Denver, New York and other cities has strained social services and increased demand for housing.Sebastian Hidalgo for NBC News;
Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images file
The mass eviction begins months after the city announced in November that it would limit stays in shelters to 60 days, and require migrants who reach that limit to find other accommodation or return to the “disembarkation zone” in the city to recently arrived migrants and will request to be housed in another shelter.
The city has postponed the policy three times due to extreme winter weather conditions, staffing issues and backlash from migrant advocates and some elected officials.
According to a municipal census, 11,210 people were living as of Friday in 23 shelters run by the city and state.
The metropolis
has received more than 37,100 immigrants since 2022
.
Many of them have arrived as part of a campaign by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who seeks to strengthen security on the southern border.
The influx of migrants to Chicago, Denver, New York and other cities has strained social services and increased demand for housing in those regions.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's office said Friday that about 4,500 people who otherwise would have had to leave shelters in the first wave of evictions will be eligible for waivers that could give them an additional 30 days in a shelter, which which for some could extend until the end of June.
Exempt individuals include families with children under 18, those currently in the process of finding housing, and people with certain medical problems, including those due to a recent measles outbreak.
City officials said the exemptions will minimize problems for the rest of the school year.
“While we know that Chicago's limited resources cannot meet all the needs at the Newcomer Mission,” Johnson said in a statement Friday, “we are constantly evaluating options that lead to better care for all Chicagoans.”
Some people who have been working with immigrants to help them access city services and find housing say the city has not been transparent about the eviction process and that waivers provide little comfort or clarity.
“Honestly,
it is a Band-Aid on an open wound
,” said Vianney Alarcón, who has been helping immigrants since last May.
Erika Villegas, one of the main volunteers helping migrants, said volunteers have received a flood of text messages from migrants who want to know what they can do and if they will end up homeless.
“Everyone is anxious and nervous,” Villegas declared.
He also criticized the city's process to help evicted immigrants who want to stay in a shelter.
“This idea of immigrants having to leave their current shelter to go to the landing zone and then having to re-enter the system is a chaotic and retrograde idea that only creates more confusion, and irresponsibly spends immigration dollars. the taxpayers,” said Villegas.
Brandie Knazze, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, said that immigrants
will receive notices to remind them of their departure dates
and will have to go on their own to the disembarkation area, where authorities “will be able to help them if beds are available.” to re-enter the shelter system.”
Asked what would happen if there were no beds available, Knazze said: “We will work with them to make sure they can contact family and friends.
"That's part of what case management is preparing for them, but they're going to be able to wait for a bed through our shelter system."
According to the city, 14,700 people have “left shelters for resettlement” in the Chicago area since the migrant crisis began, and another 5,200 have been reunited with family and friends.
Earlier this week, a group of more than 20 local elected officials and 40 organizations sent a letter to the mayor asking him to end the 60-day shelter policy and instead decide the permanence in the same case by case.
“If the 60-day eviction policy is implemented, the majority of newcomers, who cannot yet find work or housing,
will face involuntary departures from shelters
, interruption of their integration into the community, and , potentially, becoming homeless,” the letter stated.
One of Chicago's immigrant shelters has been at the center of a recent measles outbreak in the city.
Ten of the 12 people diagnosed with measles in the city since early March were linked to the Pilsen shelter that takes in new arrivals, the Chicago Department of Health said in a news release Thursday.
The city announced this Friday that, starting now, it will require that “all residents who enter or remain in a city-operated shelter system” be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.
He added that all “exposed non-immune residents” would remain in their shelters during their quarantines plus an extra seven days, as long as they were vaccinated and followed quarantine and isolation policies.
The Chicago Department of Public Health stated this week that it has tested nearly all shelter residents and
vaccinated about 900 people
, while confirming immunity for the rest of the people.
Alarcon said, “The biggest concern right now is making sure the measles outbreak is contained,” adding, “But our biggest concern overall is finding the right accommodations” so that migrants don't end up trapped in the shelter system.
Given the lack of clarity in the process until this Friday's press conference, he stressed: "I don't have high hopes for the logistics of what they are going to put in place [now] based on how everything has gone."