Chicagoans in the Woodlawn neighborhood continue to voice their opposition to the city's plan to place a migrant shelter at a closed school amid the historic crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, going as far as to say migrants should be sent to Latino-majority neighborhoods.
One resident said at a protest on Thursday the migrants, who most assuredly will be from South America, should be sent to the Little Village neighborhood, a mostly Mexican area.
"I am here because I am a child of Woodlawn. I was born and raised in Woodlawn. And I am speaking on behalf of the people that are here and the ones that's not here...We are very disappointed in this decision that Mayor Lightfoot has made to place these migrants in our community without our permission," one woman told reporters.
"Please withdraw your decision to put the migrants in our community. There’s plenty of room in Little Village for their people. Please, speak to Little Village and take them over there. We are not hating on anyone but we're loving on Woodlawn," she added.
The woman said the neighborhood is already struggling with the scourge of fentanyl and "we don't need anything else to add to the struggles we already have."
Woodland residents gather to protest against the opening of a shelter for migrants at a former school in the neighborhood.
— Laura N. Rodríguez Presa (@LAURA_N_ROD) January 5, 2023
“There’s plenty of room in Little Village for their people,” a resident said. pic.twitter.com/d4sRGIQTH3
City officials initially told Woodlawn residences migrants who made it to Chicago would not be housed at the closed school but then announced the intention to place them there during the Christmas season last year. They cited the fact the other locations were migrants are being housed are at or exceeding capacity.