CHICAGO — Hundreds of asylum seekers are seemingly sleeping on the floor of O’Hare International Airport with little information being offered by the city on what’s next for any of these people.
The area where asylum seekers being kept is under the guise of black curtains, by the bus shuttle center, out of sight for most of the people coming through the airport. Those stationed said O’Hare has been their home for several days.
“While they find another place for us to go, some have been here for 10 days, but people keep leaving and the city of Chicago will take us and will find a place for us to stay,” a man from Venezuela said.
He said there are hundreds of people like him are in the same boat and while it’s not their choice to sleep here there’s little else they can do.
“No one likes to live there, it’s just a process that we have to wait for. To be called and then we can leave. You are not going to be there for months, you are only there for days while the city finds a place for you.”
Just last week, Chicago’s mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker penning a joint letter, asking the federal government to stream line the work authorization process for asylum seekers.
Over the past year, it’s understood almost 14,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago, either bussed and brought in from other states like Texas.
The conditions under which many are living described by one migrant on Tuesday, who feared showing his face on camera.
In a text to the WGN team, he wrote “here we are truly in conditions that are not at all humane, there are many children sick to their stomachs and other things because the food they are being given is not adequate food.”