Chicago begins evicting migrants

It joins other cities, citing overstretched resources at shelters

Chicago officials on Sunday began evicting some migrants from shelters, joining other cities that have made similar moves to ease pressure on overstretched resources.

The process is starting gradually. Of the nearly 11,000 migrants living in 23 homeless shelters in Chicago, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, a fraction — 34 single adults — were required to leave Sunday.

Many people will be eligible for exemptions. They will be determined on a case-bycase basis, city officials said, for pregnant women, people with certain medical issues and migrants who are in the process of securing housing. Families with children can receive renewable 30-day extensions.

But officials said more than 2,000 people would be evicted by the end of April. And many families with children may be forced to exit the shelter network altogether by the summer.

Backed by an army of volunteers, Chicago and other cities have found shelter for migrants, enrolled their children in schools, provided food assistance and held workshops to help them fill out paperwork to apply for work permits.

Housing migrants has been draining city coffers — Chicago has received more than 37,000 migrants since August 2022. Overall, in the past year, hundreds of thousands of migrants have ended up in large cities.

The evictions are placing even more pressure on volunteers as they scramble to fill the void. Many of them said they had grave concerns about the impact, particularly when they begin to apply to families.

“There is a lot of fear there will be people in the streets,” said Annie Gomberg, whose volunteer group, People’s Shelter Response, has been assisting migrant families in Chicago.

For families in the shelters, there was confusion and worry as news spread of the policy.

A Venezuelan migrant named Nelly, who declined to share her last name for fear of retribution, said her family’s allotted time in the shelter would expire Tuesday. “The social worker said that there was no extension order, and we are waiting for the actual day to arrive to find out what happens,” she said.

A mother of two special-needs children, ages 5 and 6, and a former dental hygienist in her home country, she said that neither she nor her husband had found jobs because they still lacked work permits.

For months, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration had delayed enforcing a 60-day limit on shelter stays amid frigid temperatures and concerns over the repercussions of evicting people who might have nowhere to go.

A progressive Democrat who took office last year, the mayor has repeatedly struck a welcoming tone toward migrants from Central and South America, while criticizing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for orchestrating charter buses that have brought tens of thousands of migrants to Chicago.

But citing limited city services, Johnson decided to begin enforcing the limit, and Chicago is not alone.

Denver began to clear hotels housing migrants in February. The city has received about 40,000 migrants.

Hundreds of local families have been hosting migrants, and more are expected to do so in the coming months.

In New York, where the migrant shelter population stands at about 65,000, the city will begin limiting the amount of time most adult migrants can remain in shelters to 30 days.

Some would be allowed to stay longer if they met certain criteria. The new cap on shelter stays represents a major shift in the city’s right-to-shelter policy and it is a culmination of months of negotiations in state court.

The city had imposed limits on how long migrants could stay in several shelters, evicting many and requiring them to reapply if they still wanted a bed, which is also part of the new policy in Chicago.

Families still have 60 days before they have to leave shelters, and they can ask to be readmitted under the new rules. The city has said that 80% of evicted migrants end up giving up and voluntarily not trying to remain in the shelter system.

In all the cities, the biggest impediment to the migrants achieving self-sufficiency has been their inability to secure steady jobs without employment authorization, a permit that gives them the legal right to work in the United States. Migrants who have crossed the border illegally and seek asylum are eligible for employment authorization but can only apply for the benefit 150 days after they have filed their asylum claim in immigration court.

Many migrants are finding odd jobs, but they have been unable to save enough money to afford skyrocketing rents and support their families in expensive cities, creating a burden on social services. The cities’ mayors, struggling with busted budgets, have pleaded for assistance from the federal government.