America's immigration crisis is getting worse. According to new internal government data obtained by CBS News, more than 300,000 illegal immigrants attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border to reach the United States in December 2023, the highest number for a single month on record. At the same time, at the beginning of the New Year, the farce of "transshipment migrants" is still playing out.
On January 1, local time, 355 illegal immigrants from Texas arrived by plane at the Rockford Airport in Chicago, Illinois, and then these immigrants left the airport by chartered bus.
Texas Used planes to 'transport immigrants'
Last month, Texas officials flew more than 120 migrants to Chicago, Illinois. A spokesman for Texas Governor Greg Abbott explained at the time that the plane was used to transport migrants because the city of Chicago had introduced new penalties against buses transporting migrants. Texas has previously used buses to transfer migrants to Chicago, and some bus operators have shipped migrants to cities around Chicago to avoid fines or detaining their vehicles, putting pressure on local resettlement. In order to rectify these chaos, Chicago City Hall announced that it will severely punish immigration transfer buses that do not unload passengers at designated places and do not register and fill out forms.
Brandon Johnson, MAYOR OF Chicago: At one point last summer, we had 25 to 30 buses arriving every day without any coordination or notice. In some cases, Abbott even parked buses more than 100 miles (161 km) away from the city of Chicago, and immigrants were kicked off, they were told it was the city of Chicago. In fact, however, it is in the middle of nowhere.
How to accommodate these transshipped immigrants is a headache for the city of Chicago. At present, many immigrants are stranded in Chicago airport, police station and other places. Chicago Mayor Jeh Johnson also confirmed that a 5-year-old immigrant boy was seriously ill at a holding facility last month and died after being taken to a hospital.
