CHICAGO — From Chicago to Springfield, the effort has intensified to lobby Washington to assist with the city’s migrant crisis.

On Thursday, the Biden Administration promised to slow the surge at the US border, with federal assessment teams on the ground in Chicago looking to help. 

With the dramatic surge of new arrivals this week, Mayor Brandon Johnson and City Hall are preparing for a trip to the southern border to better assess the crisis that’s being felt so acutely here in Chicago. 

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assesses the city’s migrant crisis grappling with limited shelter space for the more than 17,000 asylum seekers who’ve arrived since the summer of 2022, including 2,300 migrants, according to city reports.

The DHS announced they plan on deploying a military personnel surge to support border efforts that’s expected to support the 2,500 National Guard personnel already in place and 800 new active duty members moving in, allowing Customs & Border Protection Agents to return to their core responsibilities.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said earlier this week his administration are planning a fact-finding mission to the border to better understand the crisis.

“Having the direct relationships, being able to talk, we heard for example, the reason that you know there were multiple buses coming, more than ever before, is because we talked to those NGO’s,” Gov. Pritzker said.

There’s a sense of urgency with the recent surge of migrant busses from Texas since more than two dozen buses arriving here just in the last 48 hours.