An Illinois city councilman has suggested that the wealthier citizens of his city host illegal immigrants in their homes amid a surge ...
An Illinois city councilman has suggested that the wealthier citizens of his city host illegal immigrants in their homes amid a surge of crossings at the southern border.
Naperville City Councilman Josh McBroom suggested last week at a council meeting that residents should consider creating a signup sheet for residents to open up their homes to illegal immigrants. Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, is home to about 149,000 people.
“I do know there’s a lot of people who do care and I think we live in a compassionate community,” he said. “We do have a very affluent community, a lot of big homes. What I’d like to do is direct staff to create a sign-up sheet for individuals that would be willing to house migrant families. And if there’s people that would do that, God bless them.”
“I think we need to find out who would be willing to house migrant families,” he added.
According to the Naperville Sun, fellow city council members Nate Wilson, Paul Leong, and Jennifer Bruzan Taylor all appeared to back McBroom’s suggestion, but no formal vote was taken. McBroom said staff would be told to “come back with their ideas on how they could facilitate something like this.”
A city spokesperson said that at least six busloads of illegal immigrants have been dropped off in Naperville since December 21, even as nearby Chicago has been sent thousands of illegal immigrants from Texas.
“You know, if we had a number of homes who said yes, we are willing to take in migrants into our home, who do we contact and how do we coordinate? Or would (the city) play a role in that? Or will we provide them the resources. Say here’s where you could contact,” McBroom told the Sun. “I don’t know, and there’s probably a lot of legal questions that would need to be answered.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has repeatedly asked the Biden administration for more funding to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants into his city and has condemned Texas for sending the migrants to his city. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has also repeatedly complained about Texas sending illegal immigrants to his state.
Under Biden, a record number of illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border and Texas has responded by sending them to sanctuary cities like Chicago. Johnson has imposed restrictions on arrivals in the city and Texas has responded by dropping off the illegal immigrants at nearby suburbs.
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