Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to answer questions about what would happen to migrants who reach the 60-day limit, which he said would be “tiered,” and have nowhere to go. After the news conference, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s first deputy chief of staff, told reporters that no one would be evicted from a city shelter as long as they were making progress finding a permanent home.

Ald. Raymond Lopez on the city struggling with the increase of migrants as some choose to leave due to city conditions: “We’ve seen our president and our vice president come to our city numerous times – they’re hosting the Democratic National Convention here is several months – and yet they still allow us to be the guinea pig for the failed policy of allowing individuals to come here for asylum with no support…”

Federal Temporary Protected Status is made possible for nationals of certain countries designated unsafe by the Department of Homeland Security. People can only apply if they arrived in the U.S. by July 31. Only about a quarter of those 20,000 migrants in Chicago right now are eligible for special protection and work permits made possible by the federal government.

“I’m not going to apologize for doing right by the people of Chicago. I said I was going to bring Chicago home. I said I was going to invest in the unhoused,” Johnson said, referring to his push for a real estate transfer tax increase on property sales over $1 million to develop a stream for anti-homelessness services. “There is no secret to what I said I was going to do and my administration carrying that out is exactly what the people of Chicago expect in their mayor.”

Several offenders – four to six male offenders, each time – are wanted for robbing people at gunpoint, carjacking vehicles and burglarizing businesses across Chicago in at least eight incidents beginning at 7 p.m. Nov. 14.

Of the 800 Chicago voters polled Oct. 18-22, 63%, somewhat or strongly oppose his tent plan compared to 28% in support with 9% unsure. Nearly half of voters, 46%, strongly oppose the plan.

“Turning the page on generations of cuts, closures, and harms, the 2024 budget is a covenant where healing, restoration, hope, and equity are its cornerstones.”

Shortly after the City Council passed his 2024 budget plan, which includes $150 million for services for migrants, which would cover only a few months’ worth of expenses, Johnson said “both the state and the county will announce new investments to meet the needs of this humanitarian crisis” on Thursday.

“And it’s not your fault that you believed the American president and his party of Democrats. They promised and they broke all their promises and you were witless enough to believe them, like so many other Democrat voters in Chicago. The wealthy among them waved their virtue and signaled it long and high and loud. Then they walked away leaving you alone. They turned their back on poor migrants in Martha’s Vineyard and they broke their promises in Chicago.”

In reality, there are few mansions sold in Chicago. Most sales above $1 million are commercial properties, by a 9 to 1 ratio when tracked April 2021 to April 2022. That means Johnson’s tax is another tax on commercial property in the city that charges the second-highest commercial property taxes in the nation.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson only has a 28% approval rating, according to an Illinois Policy Institute poll of 800 registered Chicago voters conducted by Echelon Insights.

“The Chicago Public Schools budget sits at a record $9.4 billion, spending the equivalent of about $30,000 per student. There is little if any reason why the City Council can’t divert a portion of the $383 million in annual special city subsidies given to the school district, according to the Chicago Civic Federation.”

The concerns underscores the rising tension between business lobbyists and Mayor Brandon Johnson, who ousted fellow Democrat Lori Lightfoot earlier this year on a platform that called for pro-worker policies and higher taxes on the rich. The mayor of the third-largest U.S. city has also recently passed regulations forcing employers to pay tipped workers the minimum wage, no matter how much they make in gratuity. Last week, city council voted to put a proposal on the March 2024 ballot that would raise taxes on property sales valued at more than $1 million.

Chicago will have to choose between three difficult options without an infusion of state and federal money to help with the migrant crisis: midyear budget cuts and layoffs; draining reserves in a raid which could endanger the city’s bond rating; or raising property taxes. Mayor Brandon Johnson will cross that bridge when he comes to it.

Residents, like Suzette Webb, say the neighborhood crime is changing their day-to-day routine. “I used to exercise in the neighborhood, I used to walk the 606, I was going to run errands this past Saturday and it was like 7 o’clock in the morning and I was afraid to go out,” she said.