Chicago will set up military-style tents to help get illegal immigrants out of airports and police stations across the city.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration signed a nearly $30 million contract earlier this month with a private security firm to build and operate “winterized base camps.” While it’s still unclear where the tents will be set up, CBS News Chicago reports that one location being discussed is an empty parking lot in the Roseland neighborhood, which could hold up to 1,400 illegal immigrants.
Residents pushed back on the plans, however, arguing that they can’t add illegal immigrants to a community already in crisis.
It’s unclear when the camps will begin getting built, but they are said to house 12 people each. There are also sanitation tents and kitchen units as well.
One part of the contract indicates that if temperatures are in the 40s, the units must be at about 70 degrees, leading to questions about how the tents will withstand Chicago winters.
“I can only imagine what’s going to happen trying to keep an outdoor tent warm in the winter when we know single digit temps will be the norm come January or February,” 15th Ward Ald. Ray Lopez told WGN9.
Additional benefits illegal immigrants will receive in the tents include all-day child care and transportation to school, doctor appointments, and more.
“We’re not thinking long term,” Lopez said. “We’re only doing crisis to crisis and I’ve said this is not a game of Whack-a-mole. This has to be a long term thought out process.”
According to WGN9, Chicago will have spent more than $255 million taking care of the illegal immigrants by the year's end.