
In the early hours of December 31, a plane carrying 355 migrants from Texas arrived at Chicago Rockford International Airport where they were then placed on charter buses bound for the Chicago suburbs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the City of Rockford in northern Illinois reported that the flight arrived at about 1:00 a.m. last Sunday and the migrants boarded buses for Chicago under the escort of sheriff’s deputies from the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department.
City officials said the migrants were delivered to a “landing zone” near Chicago. However, the city did not name the specific location.
According to Chicago officials, the private Boeing 777 departed from San Antonio carrying around 350 migrants seeking asylum. The migrants were then transferred to eight buses charted by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The migrants were then dropped in surrounding Chicago suburbs and made their way into the city via other means, including trains.
Officials in Rockford and Winnebago County were informed on December 30 that the plane was on its way to the airport.
According to the City of Rockford, the flight landed at Chicago Rockford International Airport to bypass Chicago’s new rules cracking down on charter buses delivering migrants to the city.
While appearing on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” later that day, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was asked by host Margaret Brennan about the flight to Rockford and the ongoing migrant crisis in Chicago.
Calling the crisis “unsustainable,” Mayor Johnson bemoaned that cities like Chicago and Denver are not equipped to “carry on such a mission” and attacked Governor Abbott for continuing “to sow seeds of chaos.”
Johnson said Abbott must not be allowed to act “the way he is acting” by sending “rogue buses” to drop off migrants “in the middle of the night” without the proper support and “coordination with the local municipalities.”
While Johnson conceded that the situation at the border has been “raggedy and reckless,” he insisted that by his actions, Governor Abbott is clinging “to the vestiges of Jefferson Davis” when the situation calls for “the hopes and aspirations” of Frederick Douglas.
Governor Abbott began transporting migrants out of Texas in 2022 as part of his Operation Lone Star effort to secure the border.