Construction of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s “tent encampment” for illegal border crossers is well underway, but city residents cannot tell by standing on the street outside the work site. That is because work crews covered the fences with a black screen so no one could see their progress.

Chicago’s sanctuary city policies are still in full force, even as legal residents are beginning to rebel against the whole idea, and Chicago’s self-described “progressive” mayor is diverting another $150 million in tax dollars to house, clothe, feed, and take care of tens of thousands of illegal border crossers.

One of Johnson’s more controversial moves has been his plans to build a huge tent city for migrants in a 6.5-acre empty lot on Chicago’s Southwest Side. It is set to house up to 1,400 illegal aliens, despite the fact that another cold Chicago winter is just around the corner.

Chicago’s WFLD-TV sent a crew to film the work site and to record some of the work going on, but within fifteen minutes of their arrival, work crews began to make filming of the site difficult.

First, a large Chicago Water Department truck was positioned near the fencing opposite the news camera crew’s position.

But that was not all. Next, workers showed up with black material that they then affixed to the fencing to prevent the prying eyes of Chicago residents from seeing what was being constructed with their tax dollars.

Resident Annette Cain decried the construction of the encampment that is being conducted despite the objections of residents.

“As a taxpayer, it makes me feel horrible,” Cain told WFLD. “They are not listening to the people.”

In another report, correspondent Kasey Chronis noted that workers put up the black screen, “seemingly so that no one from the outside could see in.”

The Johnson administration has signed a $29 million deal with Virginia-based GardaWorld Federal Services to build and manage the tent city. That cost is in addition to the newly diverted $150 million in city budget dollars.

Johnson has been stung by the reaction of the city’s black residents, many of whom are vowing to vote out every alderman who has approved the mayor’s sanctuary city policies and expenditures.

Only weeks ago, Southside residents organized to block the construction site, keeping work crews at bay for hours.

The protesters were so insistent that 12th Ward Alderwoman Julia Ramirez, who had journeyed to the site to talk to residents, was frightened and the Chicago Police had to spirit her away from the area.

Johnson announced the tent encampment plans early in September even as his wider shelter policies were being met with stiff resistance in nearly every case, especially since many of the facilities were planned and opened without notifying or involving the communities in which they were placed.

Most recently, residents of the mostly Hispanic Pilsen neighborhood organized a protest at a town hall meeting on October 3.

A poll taken the next week found that most Chicagoans want to end “sanctuary city” policies in the wake of the flood of illegal immigrants entering the city.

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