The recent surge of illegal border crossings has raised significant concerns regarding national security. According to Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty, the unchecked border crisis has led to encounters with individuals from over 150 different nationalities since October. This raises the pressing issue of not knowing who is entering the country. Customs and Border Protection has reported that there were more than 242,000 encounters at the southwest border last month, marking it as the highest number for November on record. Shockingly, 17 of these individuals were found to be on the terrorist watch list. Furthermore, December seems poised to break another monthly record, with 241,000 arrests already made thus far.
The immigration courts are grappling with an overwhelming backlog of cases due to the crisis. Currently, each of the 682 judges presiding over these courts is burdened with an average caseload of 4,500 cases per judge. This colossal workload puts immense strain on the system, further exacerbating the challenges posed by the influx of migrants.
As a result of the crisis, every city is effectively becoming a border city, including Chicago. The mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, is not discouraging migrants from entering the city but is taking measures to make it more difficult for Texas to send more migrants their way. To achieve this, Johnson and the City Council have enacted stricter penalties for buses that fail to notify the city in advance of their arrival or drop migrants off at unauthorized locations. Consequently, 96 citations have been issued, and one bus has been impounded thus far.
In response, Texas has begun sending buses to suburbs surrounding Chicago, whereby migrants are left to make their own way into the city. However, this places considerable strain on suburbs like Aurora, which are unwilling to bear the brunt of the fallout resulting from Chicago's sanctuary city status. Consequently, these suburbs are facilitating the transportation of migrants to Chicago, as it remains their intended final destination.
Aurora and several other suburbs have implemented their own measures to prevent migrants from being dropped off or housed in their towns. The situation in Chicago is becoming increasingly challenging as the city struggles to handle the influx of over 30,000 migrants. Many residents, particularly in black neighborhoods, are questioning why millions of dollars are being allocated to migrants when the local communities have been pleading for resources for years. This issue is causing division within the city, a matter that holds significance as the Democratic Party prepares to hold its national convention in Chicago later this year.
