In ‘non-sanctuary’ county near Chicago, signs along I-55 warned migrant buses to keep driving

Ahead of the Christmas weekend, officials in Grundy County erected two digital signs along Interstate 55 that aimed to deter buses carrying migrants from stopping in the county, which recently passed a resolution declaring it a “non-sanctuary county for immigration.”

The signs, placed near two northbound exits — one by Dwight and the other by Gardner — read: “NO MIGRANT BUSES THIS EXIT.” They went up Saturday in response to reports of buses dropping migrants in other communities surrounding Chicago, said Grundy County Sheriff Ken Briley.

“We wanted to get us through the holiday weekend so we didn’t run into the unfortunate circumstances of having these people dropped in rural Grundy County with no place to go,” Briley said.

No buses stopped in the county, he added, and the signs have since been removed, with no plans to put them back.

Naperville, Aurora, Fox River Grove, Elmhurst and Cicero are among the communities that have seen busloads of migrants in recent weeks amid mounting calls for a coordinated response from federal and state governments to the influx of migrants, estimated to exceed 25,000, who have come to Chicago since last summer.

Four days before Christmas, law enforcement officials in Kankakee said a bus dropped 30 to 40 migrants at a gas station in town around 4:30 a.m. Three hours later, police showed up to find people wrapped in blankets. Some stayed at the gas station, while others were spotted walking on the highway.

“The passengers, hailing from Venezuela, were left without money, food, adequate clothing, and were under the impression that they had reached their destination,” read a statement from the Kankakee County sheriff’s office.

Briley said he and others in Grundy County, which is southwest of Chicago, heard about the busload of migrants arriving in Kankakee and decided to huddle Saturday morning to craft an emergency plan in case something similar happened in their county.

It’s unclear whether anyone from the county notified the Illinois Department of Transportation prior to erecting the digital signs. An IDOT spokesperson said the agency has not posted any signs or message boards regarding migrants or migrant buses, and that the signs were gone when IDOT employees inspected the area Wednesday.

Grundy County State’s Attorney Russell Baker, who was at the Saturday morning meeting, said he was not sure whether the agency was told about the signs, or if they were placed on county land that runs along the interstate.

“If someone got lost or thought by mistake that this was Chicago, those signs were a directory,” Baker said. “We thought the signs could persuade bus drivers, if lost, to keep going on I-55 to places that are equipped to handle (migrants).”

Briley said the emergency plan also called for the county to take stranded migrants, should they end up in Grundy County, to Joliet. There, working in coordination with Joliet police and Will County emergency management, migrants would be directed to trains bound for Chicago.

The county’s emergency migrant plan came on the heels of a resolution, passed two weeks ago, that declared Grundy, population nearly 53,000, a “non-sanctuary county for immigration.”

The resolution states that the county “pledges and re-dedicates its limited resources to its residents in need: Seniors, families living below the poverty level, veterans, homeless, and all those in need of Social Services already here in Grundy County, legally.”

Three years earlier, county leaders put a nonbinding resolution on ballots that asked if authorities should assist the federal government with immigration enforcement. That resolution passed with 64% of the vote.

The County Board decided to revisit the topic of immigration this fall after watching a controversy unfold in nearby Joliet, where public backlash forced Joliet Township to withdraw its application seeking an $8.6 million state grant for asylum-seekers.

“We felt we had a clear mandate from our voters,” said Grundy County Board Vice Chairman Drew Muffler. “With inflation and everything else, we’re struggling to meet our own budget demands.”

Muffler said the County Board could next take up a measure that would allow authorities to impound buses or fine bus companies that unload passengers without permission. Chicago and Aurora are among the communities with similar laws on the books.

And if migrants do end up arriving in Grundy County, Muffler said his hope is that the county can divert them elsewhere.

“Counties have theoretically prepared for it,” Muffler said. “They’ve said they’re sanctuaries. We’re not.”

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