To bypass new rules dictating how charter buses can deliver migrants to Chicago, Texas sent a plane with 355 migrants to Chicago Rockford International Airport in Rockford, Illinois where they were then transferred to charter buses that took them to the outer Chicago suburbs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
According to a statement posted on its Facebook page, the City of Rockford said the flight arrived at 1:00 a.m. on December 31. The migrants were placed on buses bound for the Chicago suburbs with Winnebago County Sheriff’s deputies escorting them.
Chicago officials said the privately chartered Boeing 777 flew from San Antonio to Rockford carrying about 350 migrants seeking asylum.
The plane was met by eight buses charted by Texas. The buses took the migrants to the surrounding Chicago suburbs where they continued to the city via other means, mainly by train.
Rockford and Winnebago County officials said they were notified on December 30 that the flight was on its way to the airport.
According to the City of Rockford, the flight arrived in the northern Illinois city to bypass Chicago’s new rules cracking down on charter buses bringing migrants to the city.
Later that morning, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” where host Margaret Brennan asked about the flight that arrived in the wee hours of the morning.
Johnson blasted Governor Greg Abbott, accusing him of continuing “to sow seeds of chaos” by sending migrants to other US cities. Johnson called the migrant crisis in Chicago “unsustainable” and said Governor Abbott should not be allowed to continue sending “rogue buses” full of migrants “in the middle of the night” and without the support and coordination of “local municipalities.”
Johnson conceded that the situation at the southern border had been “raggedy and reckless,” but compared Abbott’s response to the crisis to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
As part of Texas’ Operation Lone Star, Governor Abbott began transporting migrants from Texas to sanctuary cities in the US interior in 2022.