Chicago using O’Hare International Airport as migrant shelter

Chicago leaders are facing backlash over hundreds of migrants being housed at O’Hare International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest airports. 

Chicago reporter William Kelly joined “Fox & Friends” Thursday to discuss what the city has been experiencing as a result of the influx of migrants.

More than 400 migrants are reportedly being housed in a section of the airport, hidden from public view behind black curtains, up from 31 at the beginning of August. 

Kelly said the airport is one of only 18 migrant shelters in Chicago and that homeless Americans are no longer allowed to stay at the airport.

The city previously struggled with an influx of homeless people at the airport but initiated a crackdown earlier this year after then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot faced criticism. 

“Mayor Johnson campaigned as the people’s mayor. Sadly, the people are telling me that he’s the migrants’ mayor,” said Kelly.

Kelly said he does not think the same security and background checks that Americans go through at airports apply to migrants.

Meanwhile, the city continues to struggle with crime and to recover from the coronavirus lockdowns.  

“There are millions upon millions of dollars being spent on this migrant crisis. Nobody knows where the money is going, or what it’s being spent on.”

Kelly said he has been unable to receive answers from the mayor. 

“Sadly, Mayor Johnson must have taken Mayor Lightfoot’s course at Harvard on media relations, because he won’t answer my questions.”

Kelly described the crisis as “horrifying on every level.” 

“One of the migrant shelters in Chicago is directly across the street from my building on Michigan Avenue. So I look out the window, and it’s like a scene from Mad Max every single day.

“It really is a fail on every level, the police are not able to babysit the migrants and arrest the violent criminals at the same time. And so the people of Chicago are suffering.”

Vianney Marzullo, a lead volunteer with the Police Station Response Team advocacy group, told the Chicago Sun-Times that O’Hare is supposedly just a holding place for the incoming flights. 

According to the Daily Mail, Chicago continues to struggle to house the influx of thousands of migrants into the city.

About 14,000 migrants have been transported to Chicago by bus since August. 

There are 15 shelters for asylum seekers operating across the city currently with another shelter expected to open next month on the South Side.