Despite pleas from city council, mayor's office holding firm on migrant eviction policy

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The Johnson administration is still resisting pressure to change its policy of evicting many migrants from City shelters after 60 days.

Through a translator, Santiago, an asylum seeker from Ecuador, said he has a work permit, but an employer required two months training before he could be offered a job. He asked  how he can support his family if he must leave the shelter in 60 days.

Deputy Mayor Beatriz Ponce de León said during Tuesday’s council  hearing that migrants can go back to the City’s landing zone and reapply for shelter.

“Right now, anybody who seeks shelter has a shelter bed…There shouldn’t be people necessarily who are becoming unhoused because of the 60-day policy,” Ponce de León said.

Alderwoman Jesse Fuentes pointed out the City doesn’t transport asylum seekers back to the landing zone.

“I do know that in Humboldt Park we have a dozen tents of new arrivals, and so there is this shuffling that’s happening, they’re not making it back to the landing zone,” Fuentes claimed.

She and other alderpersons said that's wildly unacceptable.

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