Pritzker pleads with Texas governor to stop sending migrants to Chicago in the frigid cold

Gov. JB Pritzker is pleading with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to halt sending migrants from the southern U.S. border to Illinois as frigid temperatures hit Chicago.

Since August 2022, 30,000 migrants have arrived in Illinois aboard buses originating in Texas and another roughly 4,300 have arrived via airplane, according to City of Chicago data. The transports have often come without warning, which Pritzker has detested as a "cheap political stunt."

"You are now sending asylum seekers from Texas to the Upper Midwest in the middle of winter — many without coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow," Pritzker said in a letter Friday. "Your callousness, sending buses and planes full of migrants in this weather, is now life-threatening to every one of the arrivals."

Pritzker also paid for a full-page advertisement in The Austin American-Statesman, also part of The USA TODAY Network, with the same text.

Abbott's office rejected Pritzker's plea.

"Governor Pritzker was all too proud to call Illinois 'the most welcoming state in the nation' until Governor Abbott began transporting migrants to Chicago," said Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris. "Instead of complaining about migrants sent from Texas, where we are also preparing to experience severe winter weather across the state, Governor Pritzker should call on his party leader to finally do his job and secure the border – something he continues refusing to do.

"Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue transporting migrants to sanctuary cities to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis.”

Pritzker's letter came almost at the same time as Abbott boasted in a post on social media that Texas has shipped more than 100,000 migrants, who are legally allowed to remain in the U.S., to numerous Democratic-run cities since his busing program was launched in April 2022.

Of them, 30,800 migrants have been sent to Chicago, second only to the 37,100 sent to New York City, according to data released from Abbott's office on Friday.

Only migrants granted at least temporary permission to remain in the United States are eligible for the bus program. They must volunteer to go and must sign affidavits to that effect written in a language they understand.

Illinois opened another shelter for migrants on Wednesday, hosting about 220 people in a former CVS location in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. It’s part of a $160 million state spending plan for migrant assistance that Pritzker announced in November.

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Funding the state response to the situation has been a controversial topic in recent months, causing tension between Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. With a centralized federal response lacking, some have called on the state and city governments to step up investments in migrant assistance.

The state invested that additional $160 million into the Illinois Department of Human Services this fall to help settle and shelter migrants in Chicago, part of the $638 million Illinois has spent on the asylum crisis since August 2022 according to the governor's budgeting agency.

Lawmakers did not take up any action regarding supplemental migrant funding during the November veto session but could do so when they return to Springfield on Tuesday.

“Suffice to say, I’ve brought this up to leaders,” Pritzker said in an unrelated press conference this week. “They haven’t wanted to bring it up yet. I do think it’s going to be important to deal with the costs here.”

John Moritz of the Austin-American Statesman contributed.

Contact Patrick M. Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.com

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Pritzker to Abbott: Stop sending asylum seekers to Chicago in the cold