Pritzker says Texas dropping migrants in Chicago in ‘dead of night’

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on Wednesday accused Texas of dropping off buses of migrants in Chicago in the “dead of night.”

“We have tried to direct the buses to reception centers in Chicago that we have prepared for the arrivals, but the state of Texas instead chooses to send them to Union Station, dumping these human beings off in the dead of night,” Pritzker said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) began busing migrants from the southern border to various Democratic-run cities, including Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago, in April. The first bus arrived in Chicago on Aug. 31, with what Chicago officials have said was no notice.

“The governor of the state of Texas is choosing not to notify the city or the state when he is sending busloads of families,” Pritzker said.

“They won’t tell us how many infants, children, seniors or families are on board,” he continued. “They won’t tell us what route they’ll take or when they will arrive. They won’t provide any information that would actually help their fellow Americans welcome and care for these human beings.”

Pritzker issued an emergency disaster proclamation on Wednesday and activated 75 members of the Illinois National Guard in an effort to provide for the more than 500 asylum-seekers that have arrived in Chicago thus far.

“Let me be clear: while other states may be treating these vulnerable families as pawns, here in Illinois, we are treating them as people,” Pritzker said in a press release.

Other GOP governors, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, have joined Abbott in sending migrants to Democratic-led cities and states in protest of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. 

Abbott sent two buses of migrants to Vice President Harris’s D.C. home on Thursday, while DeSantis confirmed that he sent two planes of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., on Wednesday.