On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America Reports,” Chicago Alderman Brian Hopkins stated that the federal government has failed to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and now Chicago is “attempting to close its own borders to the constant flow of migrant buses and now private charter planes that are landing.”
Hopkins said, “Part of this is a response to the city attempting to close its own borders to the constant flow of migrant buses and now private charter planes that are landing. It’s happening at a time when we are not prepared, when we don’t have the resources that we’ve allocated, the social workers, the medical staff, the people who are there to try and take these migrants in. When they’re not working and a bus pulls up and hundreds of people disembark from buses, they have nowhere to go. We actually had a bus driver drop off 60 people at Sears Tower at about 11:00 at night, and he told them, oh, by the way, they’re expecting you in the lobby. Well, that was pure fabrication, and he just left them there, he pulled away and left them there. These are human beings, and they’re being treated like fodder. It’s unacceptable. So, we tried to get control of that, and as a result, the bus drivers found out they couldn’t drive into Chicago in the off hours, so they were dropping them off in the suburbs, leaving them at the commuter rail stations, and telling them to take a train in in the morning. So, the situation has gone from bad to worse and it’s just chaos out there.”
Later, co-host Sandra Smith asked, “Aren’t we talking about a massive crisis at the southern border from where these migrants are coming? And what is your message on the lack of security and the lack of securing the southern border on the part of the federal government?”
Hopkins responded, “Yeah, absolutely. The federal government has dropped the ball. I’ve made that clear, I’ve said that repeatedly since this crisis started. We, as a city, the municipal government of Chicago, are not equipped to handle this. We’ve never been equipped to handle this. We’re trying to do the best we can. But when this crisis started over a year ago, we went to the federal government immediately and said, we can’t do this, give us funding, give us support. We went to FEMA and basically came away empty-handed. So, that’s the source of my impatience now. We’ve been asking for assistance from the federal government to help this crisis on the ground and to secure the border in Texas and Arizona. And so far, neither has happened.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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