Chicago-area migrant bus battle intensifies as more towns crack down

CHICAGO - The migrant bus battle in the suburbs is intensifying, and the list of villages and towns trying to prevent random drop-offs and rogue buses is growing longer.

On Tuesday evening, at least five more suburbs approved restrictive ordinances aimed at curbing unscheduled buses from Texas.

Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) expected one bus from the southern border on Tuesday, but that did not account for buses that might turn up in surrounding suburbs.

In recent weeks, Chicago’s Ogilvie Transportation Center has become the final stop for many new arrivals. In the city’s daily migrant census on Tuesday, officials acknowledged the need for a more effective tracking system, as the number of migrants being dropped off in various suburbs appears to be a surprise each day.

Since Texas Governor Greg Abbott has continued to circumvent Chicago’s landing zone by taking busloads of migrants to the suburbs, those municipalities are now taking matters into their own hands.

On Tuesday night, Hinsdale, Joliet, North Chicago, Buffalo Grove, and Woodstock held council meetings to address the situation. Council members in all five suburbs unanimously approved their proposed ordinances.

In Hinsdale, Village President Thomas Cauley revealed that they’ve received 11 migrant buses in the last 11 days.

He said those new arrivals were dropped off at the village’s Metra station, where they boarded trains to Ogilvie.

Now, bus companies that show up in Hinsdale unannounced will be looking at fines of $750 per passenger.

"Hinsdale does not have the resources to handle such situations, even in good weather," said Cauley. "We were initially told that the inflow of buses to Hinsdale would last for seven days. But we’ve recently been advised by a bus driver, that unless we do something, these buses will keep coming unannounced, at least through March."

In Hinsdale, bus companies will need to file an application at least five days before arriving and provide the names of all migrants on the bus, in addition to following other guidelines.

"The ordinance is not a ban on buses, buses will be permitted to come to Hinsdale if they comply with the new ordinance," said Cauley.

UIC Professor of Law Steven Schwinn, on Tuesday, explained that regulating buses – not migrants themselves – does not violate the state's sanctuary laws.

"This doesn’t really have anything to do with sanctuary city laws, or sanctuary laws in general. They really are two entirely different things," Schwinn said. "If they are going to accept immigrants that have been bused from states like Texas, for example, they want to do it in a kind of orderly way, so they don’t want these buses to come sort of willy-nilly at different times, randomly without notice, dropping people off in cold temperatures without appropriate clothing or medical attention or food, not even knowing if they are in Chicago or not, and then expecting them to find their way to Chicago."

Schwinn added that while migrants should report to Chicago's landing zone to be directed to resources when they arrive, they aren't required to. Some migrants are being picked up by relatives – either in the suburbs, or once they’ve arrived by train to Ogilvie.

"You don’t monitor everyone and it’s not the responsibility of state and local officials to monitor everyone, but it could be their responsibility to help provide them services, housing, food, and the like when they come to our area," said Schwinn.

To date, there are 14,706 migrants in 27 active city shelters. Officials said Tuesday that 56 people were awaiting shelter placement at the landing zone, 8 were waiting in CPD districts, and 244 were at O’Hare.

Chicago has welcomed more than 29,000 new arrivals since August 2022.