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Chicago City Council turns to federal officials for help amid migrant bus arrivals
With migrant buses on the move – arriving in Chicago around the clock – City Council members are turning to federal officials for help.
CHICAGO - More than 60% of respondents in a recent survey believe Chicago's sanctuary city status should be removed.
Polling firm, M3 Strategies, finished conducting a survey this week on the migrant situation and sanctuary city policies in Chicago.
M3 Strategies surveyed 659 randomly selected likely Chicago voters between Oct. 1 to 3.
According to the poll, 70% of voters surveyed say focus on housing new migrants is negatively affecting current Chicago residents in need. This opinion rings true across several demographics, with 67% of Democrats, 74% of women, 79% of Black, 71% of Hispanic, and 75% of West and South side voters agreeing supporting migrants comes at the expense of Chicagoans.
Safety was also a concern with 50% of respondents saying housing migrants makes Chicago less safe.
The survey found that 39% of respondents believe Chicago should remain a sanctuary city. Support for remaining a sanctuary city is strongest among White voters and on the North and Northwest sides.
Respondents are relatively evenly split on whether the city should provide housing to migrants, with 49% saying they should not and 46% saying they should.
The poll also asked for direct responses in the respondents' own words on how they feel about the city's migrant situation and the Chicago's sanctuary city status.
"The feds must step up at the border. This along with the numerous homeless encampments and the daily random violence without any consequence, makes stepping out of my home scary," a 46-64-year-old Democratic Hispanic woman said via the survey.
Another respondent shared her opinion on the situation.
"I support Chicago being a migrant city but the volume of people entering the city and the large cost are not sustainable. Local and federal government need to work together to figure out how to fix our crisis at the border and determine a long-term fix because we have other large issues in this city that need to be addressed as well as migrants," an 18-30-year-old Democratic White woman said.
All responses were generated via SMS to web survey.
The complete findings from the poll are included below: