Migrants twice dropped off at a Naperville Metra station before moving on to Chicago, city officials say
Two busloads of migrants have been dropped off at Naperville’s downtown Metra station since last Thursday, according to city spokeswoman Linda LaCloche.
LaCloche could not say how many migrants arrived in the city or where the buses traveled from but said passengers boarded a Metra train for downtown Chicago right after arriving in Naperville.
“We did not receive any prior notification of this and became aware after it happened,” LaCloche wrote in an email to the Naperville Sun. “We continue to monitor this ever-changing situation.”
Naperville is one of a growing list of suburban cities that have seen buses ferry migrants to their communities — unannounced — over the past few weeks. The spread of migrant-carrying buses to collar communities comes in the wake of more stringent rules for migrant drop-offs adopted by the city of Chicago earlier this year.
Chicago still accepts busloads of migrants — as it has since buses started arriving from the southern border in August 2022 — but has recently started to clamp down on where and when arrivals can take place.
In mid-November, Chicago officials implemented rules that restricted migrant drop-offs to approved weekday hours. The policies also designated a migrant drop-off landing zone in Chicago’s West Loop and limited arrivals to two per hour. Buses, however, did not immediately obey the new rules.
In an effort to hold bus owners accountable to the November policy, Chicago aldermen on Dec. 13 approved tougher penalties for rogue arrivals. Essentially, buses face seizure, impoundment and fines for unloading passengers without a permit or outside of approved hours and locations.
Yet since the harsher penalties took effect, Chicago has lost all communication about drop-offs.
Instead of more coordination, Chicago officials have said that bus drivers, in direct correlation with tighter drop-off rules, have started to unload migrants in unauthorized places — including suburban train stations — to work around penalties.
Reports of unauthorized migrant drop-offs in Chicago-area suburbs have been mounting, especially over the past week.
Migrants reportedly have been left in Lockport, Kankakee, Fox River Grove and Elmhurst.
Last week, five different buses stopped at Aurora’s Transportation Center. In response, the Aurora City Council Friday passed an ordinance regulating buses coming to the city to drop off migrants who are en route to Chicago.
Also on Friday, the Will County Emergency Management Agency announced it is coordinating with municipalities and state agencies on suburban bus arrivals from the southern border.
“Our municipalities have seen an increase in buses from Texas disembarking passengers at Metra stations and other locations throughout the county,” Will County EMA Director Allison Anderson said in a news release. “We are working to coordinate information between public safety agencies, the state of Illinois, and the city of Chicago. Our priority is ensuring humane transportation of asylum-seekers to the official Chicago landing zone.”
One bus unloaded migrants at Naperville’s downtown Metra station on Thursday, followed by a second Sunday night, according to LaCloche. She said that to her knowledge, none of the passengers stayed in Naperville.
The city has been planning for the possibility of migrant drop-offs since last year.
In fall 2022, Naperville officials, behind the scenes, developed a plan to handle migrants on an emergency basis only. The plan, however, primarily focuses on a situation where migrants are dropped off in town and temporarily stay, instead of immediately leaving by train, as was the case with arrivals last week.
“As you know, we started planning for this in 2022,” LaCloche said. “Given how the situation is evolving and changing, we continue to update our plan and keep it current with the given situations we are witnessing. We have been actively meeting since mid-December due to the changes with Chicago’s policies.”
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(Chicago Tribune reporters Robert McCoppin and Nell Salzman and Aurora Beacon-News reporter Steve Lord contributed.)
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