Chicago, Illinois, Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) says Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) busing of migrants to her city, a sanctuary jurisdiction for illegal aliens, is “racist and xenophobic” — the latest Democrat official to oppose the transportation of border crossers when they are sent to their cities.
As Breitbart News reported this week, Abbott started busing border crossers to the sanctuary city of Chicago after sending thousands over the last few months to the sanctuary cities of New York City, New York and Washington, D.C.
“To continue providing much-needed relief to our small, overrun border towns, Chicago will join fellow sanctuary cities Washington, D.C., and New York City as an additional drop-off location,” Abbott said in a statement.
Like New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), both supporters of their cities’ sanctuary policies, Lightfoot is denouncing the sending of migrant buses to her city as “racist and xenophobic.”
NBC 5 Chicago reports:
“This is about a cheap political point. It’s not about sharing the load,” she said. “To Greg Abbott and his enablers in Texas: with these continued political stunts, (he) has confirmed what many of us had already known: he’s a man without any morals, humanity, or shame.” [Emphasis added]
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“They’re not cargo. They’re not chattel. They’re human beings, just like you and me,” she said. “Governor Abbott’s racist and xenophobic practices of expulsion, have only amplified the challenges many of these migrants have experienced on their journey to find a safe place. This cannot be who we are as Americans.” [Emphasis added]
A group of men stand outside Union Station after arriving on a bus with other migrants sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Aug. 31, 2022, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Ana Ramirez Duran, 22, who says she is 8 months pregnant, holds her 3-year-old daughter, Cataleya Salazar Ramirez, after arriving on a bus from Texas with other migrants at Union Station in Chicago on Aug. 31, 2022. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Elier Salazar Chacon, 29, carries his 3-year-old daughter Cataleya Salazar Ramirez while talking with a Chicago police officer after arriving on a bus with other migrants from Texas at Union Station on Aug. 31, 2022, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
A group of migrants who arrived on a bus from Texas are given cheeseburgers as they prepare to take a CTA bus to a Salvation Army shelter on Aug. 31, 2022, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Chicago, with a population of nearly 2.7 million residents, having to absorb a few thousand border crossers sent from Texas pales in comparison to the level of illegal immigration seen by American border communities on a weekly basis.
In the last week, in the Del Rio Sector of the Texas-Mexico border, agents apprehended nearly 13,000 border crossers and illegal aliens — averaging almost 1,900 apprehensions a day in the region — which is about a third of Del Rio’s total population.
Chicago, with a homeless population of more than 58,000, may soon mirror New York City in its struggle to sustain waves of illegal immigration. With more than 6,000 border crossers having been bused to New York City, the city’s homeless shelter system is being pushed to the brink.
For Texas, Abbott’s migrant busing operation is a massive cost saving.
Whereas Texans have paid about $12 million so far to bus migrants to Democrat-controlled sanctuary cities, the cost to state taxpayers for illegal immigration runs at about $11 billion a year, indicating that Abbott’s operation is easily paying for itself.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.