Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Let's not go Brandon: Chicago mayor Johnson flip flops on visiting southern border

A couple of weeks ago, Chicago's new mayor, Brandon Johnson, announced that he was heading to the southern border, saying at the time, "We need to go assess the situation." Additionally, he said, "This is serious. And I've been saying it. I mean this ain't the first time you've heard me say how serious this dynamic is."

Well, I guess it ain't so serious. Johnson is staying in Chicago. 

Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Monday he had scrapped plans to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border to get an up-close look at the starting point for the more than 18,500 migrants that have made their way to Chicago. 

Johnson concluded his time was better spent in Chicago, grappling with the crisis that has strained the city’s social safety net and exposed deep tension between Chicago’s Black and Latino communities, officials said. 

More than 3,567 migrants are living in police stations across the city and at O’Hare International Airport with another 11,043 migrants living in city shelters as of Friday, according to city data. Johnson has said the crisis was caused by “right-wing extremists bent on sowing chaos and division in our city.” 

Johnson will focus on “the immediate urgency of adding shelter space to house thousands of new arrivals currently sleeping in police stations, airports or outside,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
Flip flop.

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