Mayor Brandon Johnson, other mayors in DC pushing White House, Congress for help with migrants
About a dozen community members protest near a city owned lot at W. 38th St. and S. California Ave. in the Brighton Park neighborhood, over the cities plan to turn it into a migrant encampment, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. | Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Time
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will join other mayors in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to step up pressure on the Biden White House and Congress to provide more federal assistance to help with the growing migrant crisis.
Johnson will be joined by the mayors from New York, Denver, Houston and Los Angeles, a spokesperson said.
The group will meet in the morning at the White House with Tom Perez, the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs who has been in contact with officials from Chicago and the state of Illinois over the past months.
The trip comes as the crisis in providing housing and other services to the migrants has been growing.
Johnson also plans to meet with members of the Illinois House delegation and later with senators from Illinois, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and other states.
Most of the migrants in Chicago are from Venezuela and are seeking asylum for various reasons. The Johnson administration has been looking for state and federal financial assistance to help pay for migrant care, with $150 million earmarked to care for asylum-seekers in 2024.