Black Chicago residents infuriated over migrant surge: 'Enough!'

South Side residents protest plan to house illegal immigrants in abandoned high school

Chicago residents are taking legal action against the city over its proposal to house migrants at a vacant high school, citing concerns surrounding transparency and its potential impact on public safety. 

South Shore Chicago resident J. Darnell Jones, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, joined "Fox & Friends First" to discuss his concerns surrounding the plan. 

"The information that I spoke about was based on factual data that suggests there is an adverse impact to mass… immigration on Black communities," Jones told Ashley Strohmier Tuesday. "However, I was speaking specifically about my our residents there near the South Shore High School who had a concern based on a lack of transparency by the city in terms of their decision-making process to put housed migrants in the school."

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"They made those decisions without our input," he continued. "They did not ask us for whether we were we felt safe or they didn't have any plans in place to ensure that we were safe, so that's why we voiced our concerns."

A group of residents protested the city's plan last week outside the school, highlighting prominent concerns surrounding its impact on safety within the Black community. 

"Why would any leader put our Black communities already riddled with crime, at further risk by placing unvetted, non-taxpayers steps away from our seniors, our children, and our homes we've worked so hard on our own to secure," Jones said during the protest. 

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South Shore community advocate Natasha Dunn also echoed Jones' concerns, saying community members are "extremely dismayed by the city of Chicago's inability to control and develop safe parameters around housing migrants" that were relocated to the city.

"We have been redlined, Jim Crowed, pushed out," Dunn exclaimed during the protest. "Enough!"

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If the plan proceeds, the city will likely house hundreds of migrants at the South Shore High School where individuals will have access to food, shelter and showers. 

"The city hasn't done anything to address this situation," Craig Carrington, alumnus of the high school, said Tuesday. 

As states endure a surge of migrants at the southern border, some officials, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have resorted to bussing the illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities like Chicago.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued an emergency declaration last week following the arrival of 48 migrants, according to a press release, which states that the city and state have provided emergency care for over 8,000 migrants since August 2022.

Jones reiterated the broader need for city resources like policing, arguing it is a "slap in the face" for migrants to receive access to those resources at taxpayers' expense. 

"It's safety and transparency," Jones said. "We've had a problem with police response in our neighborhood in the past, so to bring someone in and say that they are going to have police presence for… 24 hours a day does a couple of things. First of all, it's a slap in the face to those of us who have not had police presence when we needed it."

"Secondly, it provides a resource to someone who does not pay taxes in our community when we have been starved of those resources ourselves," he continued. "So those are primary concerns, however, to offer us a plan of safety within the building, in the facility where the migrants will be, but not a plan of safety outside in our community, where they will be most of the time, is problematic."