Democrat Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has diverted rental assistance funding for struggling citizens and is using it to house illegal aliens.
The Illinois Rental Payment Program was set up to allocate up to $25,000 a year to individuals struggling to pay for their housing. In 2022, the Pritzker administration proudly noted that one billion dollars in state taxes had been pumped into the program to help people still struggling after the coronavirus pandemic.
When asked this month about his plans to pay for the increasing costs of housing caused by the illegal aliens pouring into the state thanks to President Joe Biden’s mounting border crisis, Pritzker said that he had been raiding the funds already allocated for other state programs meant to benefit citizens, programs including the rental assistance fund.
“We have taken some of the programs that have pre-existed the crisis and adjusted them to help with the migrant crisis,” Pritzker said, according to the Center Square. “Let me give you one example, our rental assistance program. We have provided some of that rental assistance money, which wasn’t originally intended to be about asylum seekers, for this challenge.”
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Republican State Rep. David Friess was shocked by the governor’s reallocation of funding meant for citizens.
“I think it’s a horrible idea. We have citizens in this state that need that assistance. Obviously, that’s why this program is in place,” Friess exclaimed. “Unfortunately, our borders are wide open.”
Republican State Rep. Brad Halbrook was also aghast at the governor’s move.
“The governor has been calling on the White House to take some action. He’s begun to call on other communities in the state and has offered up some $40 million, and I’m not sure where that is coming from,” Halbrook told the Center Square.
In early October, Pritzker admitted that the border crisis was putting an “enormous strain” on Illinois and pleaded with Joe Biden to send more financial aid to the state to help cope with the influx of border crossers.
Instead of demanding Biden close the border, Pritzker asked Biden to fast-track work permits so illegals could take jobs in the state.
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More than 15,000 border crossers have arrived in Chicago alone since the summer of 2022, and state taxpayers are footing a nearly $330 million bill to house, feed, care, and provide social services and medical care to these new arrivals.
At the end of September, Pritzker announced more than $41 million in state funds to Illinois cities taking in illegal aliens.
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