Democratic National Convention organizers leaning on locals to handle possible migrant surge in August

CHICAGO — Anticipating Chicago will see a surge of buses bearing migrants from the southern border ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August, organizers say they’re relying on Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to come up with a plan to stave off any ensuing potential chaos.

So far, Johnson and Pritzker have not detailed how they’ll respond if Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas attempts to make political hay by busing a larger-than-normal number of asylum-seekers to Chicago during the four-day convention at which President Joe Biden is expected to accept his party’s renomination.

Both the mayor and the governor have publicly acknowledged the possibility of a swell in migrant arrivals timed for the convention and both have repeatedly accused Abbott of using vulnerable people as political pawns.

Along with tensions over the Biden administration’s ongoing support of Israel in its war in Gaza, disputes over the response to the migrant crisis have the potential to sow discord among Democrats as the party seeks to display unity while sending the president into a general election rematch with former Republican President Donald Trump.

“First of all, we can’t just look at these as migrants,” Minyon Moore, chair of the Democratic National Convention Committee, told reporters Thursday during a gathering of state Democratic Party leaders from across the country. “These are human beings. These are people that are being bused to places that some don’t even know where they’re going. And we have to show them compassion and the concern as a Democratic Party and a Democratic family.”

“We’re hoping that with the city’s help, with the state’s help, that we will have a plan in place so that it doesn’t feel like it’s just, ‘OK, we’ve got a bunch of buses coming in and providers should run,'" added Moore, a Chicago native and former aide to President Bill Clinton. “That’s not the way we are approaching this. We’re looking at a very holistic plan right now to make sure that they are safe if they come, if they’re just dropped off here.”

Drawing a contrast with Trump and the GOP, Moore said the migrants are “being used by the Republican Party.”

“We don’t want to see that happen, so we are going to treat them with dignity and fairness,” she said. “And we hope that the convention will go on and the city and the state will have a plan in place to address it if they do bring busloads.”

The city and state have struggled at times to work cooperatively in responding to the migrant crisis since the first buses arrived in August 2022. Behind-the-scenes disagreements have occasionally come into public view, such as when Pritzker shut down Johnson’s plan to build a state-funded tent encampment in the Brighton Park neighborhood over environmental concerns.

The issue also has created friction with the Biden administration, with both City Hall and Springfield repeatedly calling for Washington to do more to help localities away from the border that are receiving new migrants on a near-daily basis.

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