It’s not clear how many applications have been submitted, but as of Dec. 29, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had processed work permits and temporary protected status applications for only 1,480 new arrivals. Once those applications are processed, they also need to be approved. Sources said only 284 asylum seekers in Chicago have gotten work permits, and 279 have received their Social Security card. That’s about 1%. Worse, city data suggests applications did not start processing until the week of Nov. 9.

Hints of such efforts can be seen in the latest data on the jail population, which show a dip in the number of people held at least five years with pending felony cases, from 233 a year ago to 223 in mid-December. The median time to complete murder cases also has dropped slightly since last year, prosecutors’ data show. For the cases completed from January through August 2023, the most recent information available, at least half took four years and five months to complete, down from four years and eight months for murder cases finished in 2022.

The mayors of New York, Chicago and Denver said a nonending flow of migrants arriving from the southern border has pushed their cities to the breaking pointheading into the New Year, as border crossings swell and Texas Gov. Greg Abbottkeeps finding new ways to torment his Democratic rivals.

In a public letter, Pritzker acknowledged that he and Abbott both desire federal immigration reform, before accusing Abbott of choosing to “sow chaos in an attempt to score political points…You are now sending asylum seekers from Texas to the Upper Midwest in the middle of winter – many without coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow – to a city whose shelters are already overfilled with migrants you sent here.”

Last weekend, at least 19 people were shot, three fatally, in gun violence across the city, police said.

This protest was led by the group “U.S. Palestinian Community Network” and the Coalition for Justice. It is one of several they have conducted in the Chicago area over the last few weeks.

“Look, my wife and I, we’re raising our three children on the West Side of Chicago. It’s a beautiful part of the city. We love it. But it also has been the side of the city of Chicago that has experienced gross disinvestment, from school closings, from lack of transportation, from lack of investments; and so, I wake up every single day in one of the most toughest parts of the city. And so, there is no one in this city that thinks about public safety more than someone like me, who is raising a family on the West Side

A video shows two cars spinning donuts in the intersection of Wacker and Franklin around 3:30 a.m. A couple of passing motorists stopped on the Franklin Street bridge and joined another 60 or so spectators, forming a circle around the performance.

Migrants who are transported to Chicago do not get the same health services as they would at the border, Mayor Brandon Johnson said, though he acknowledged the process at the U.S.-Mexico divide is “absolutely raggedy and reckless…But we cannot have a governor who decides that he’s going to cling to the vestiges of [Confederate President] Jefferson Davis, when we should be pulling to the hopes and aspirations that were left by [black abolitionist] Frederick Douglass. We have to have a coordinated response to this humanitarian crisis. We cannot allow chaos to dictate and to divide this country.”

The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership bills itself as the largest workforce development system in the nation, having placed more than 70,000 people into jobs.

While the city has followed a national trend of lowered gun violence, it has stood nearly alone in seeing a spike in robberies — nearly 40% more victims than the year before. And more robbers are carrying guns, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab. In 2019, about 40% of robberies involved a gun. That surged to 60% in 2023.

Ride-share drivers are being robbed at gunpoint while picking up or dropping off passengers on the West Side, Chicago police say in a new community alert.

“The mayor has a vision for transforming the city and doing it in an

“Beyond policy victories, we have created a seismic shift in the rooms where Chicago education policy is shaped.”

“I think the predominate issue is that whether it be, in your case, probably unintentional, is they now have a support network within Chicago, support network meaning others that have preceded them at that point.” That means family and friends who have already arrived in Chicago.

The Village Board enacted regulations for buses carrying migrants into town.

“Opportunities and resources were tailored for those who were white and privileged and opportunities and resources were limited for people of color,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson’s newly appointed public health chief Olusimbo Ige, who trained in medicine in Nigeria but not licensed to practice in the U.S.

According to the city of Rockford, after the plane landed at the Rockford International Airport around 1 a.m. Sunday, those onboard were immediately put onto buses to Chicago’s “landing zone” in the West Loop.

While owners say they are committed to their bricks-and-mortar stores, the lack of arrests and the relentless burglaries have them wondering how they can keep their businesses afloat.