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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson caves to pressure and postpones migrant evictions
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Mayor Brandon Johnson
...Hizzonner da Mare of Chicago. He was elected in April 2023 to replace the disastrous Lori Lightfoot and immediately set about out-Richtering her. A member of the Democratic Party (naturally), Johnson previously worked as a social studies teacher in the city's stellar public schools system. He helped organize the 2012 teachers strike. Prior to becoming Da Mare, he served on the Cook County Board of Boodlng Commissioners from 2018 to 2023...
 avoided further outrage from migrants, their supporters, and the Chicago City Council by postponing shelter evictions until March.

The shelter evictions, which typically come 60 days after arrival, were set to take effect on Thursday. Johnson announced on Tuesday that the removals will now be put off again ahead of a City Council hearing and days before thousands of asylum-seekers would have been forced to leave the city-run shelters.

“We have made the decision to extend the shelter stay policy based on original exit dates from mid-January through the end of March,” Johnson said at a City Hall news conference via the Chicago Tribune.

Migrants who originally received an eviction notice between Jan. 16 and Feb. 29 will now be given a 60-day extension from their original date. Brandie Knazze, head of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, said that 5,673 people who were scheduled to leave on Jan. 16 now have a new move-out date of March 16.

The 2,119 migrants who were scheduled for shelter eviction between March 1 and March 28 will receive a 30-day extension. Anyone who began entering the shelter following the announcement on Tuesday would receive a standard 60-day eviction notice. The 5,910 new arrivals who entered the migrant shelter system between Aug. 1 and Nov. 16, 2023, will receive their 60-day notice starting Feb. 1.

The controversial decision to evict the migrants on Feb. 1 came soon after the city disbanded its plan to create new shelters, citing high costs. Over a dozen aldermen, including Johnson allies who typically supported Johnson’s handling of the Chicago migrant crisis, called on Johnson to scrap his 60-day limit policy last week over concerns about the frigid weather and lack of resources to support the migrants. It marked one of the first times since Johnson had taken office that he received pushback from council members of his own party.

In the letter sent last week, the aldermen claimed the 60-day eviction policy posed “a significant threat to the health and safety of new arrivals” and did not address “systemic issues” regarding alternative housing for migrants once they leave the shelters.

Alderman Andre Vasquez, who is chairman of the city’s immigration committee and one of the co-signers of the letter, told the Chicago Tribune he approved of the mayor’s delay of the eviction process.

“We’re leading from the front as a city,” he said, adding that Johnson’s decision shows “the rest of the country what it is to be a city that lives the values this country claims.” He added that he didn’t see this type of collaboration or listening under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.


Posted by: Fred 2024-01-31
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=690107