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The Honorable Brandon Johnson  September 28, 2023

Mayor, City of Chicago 

Cc: Cristina Pacione-Zayas, First Deputy Chief of Staff, City of Chicago; Beatriz Ponce de León, Deputy Mayor for Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Rights, City of Chicago; Alderperson Andre Vasquez, 40th Ward Alderperson, Chair of the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights 

Dear Mayor Johnson, 

We are deeply concerned about the city’s reported plans to erect tent encampments to house asylum seekers. The lack of transparency about the immediate and long term strategies to resettle migrants arriving in Chicago has been a profound disappointment. 

Chicago must be and always will be a Welcoming City to those that are forced to seek refuge from violence, social repression, and climate change. Since our inception in 2017, Indivisible Chicago Alliance has advocated for immigrant justice and, over the last year, our members have joined their neighbors in helping to provide needed support to arriving asylum seekers. 

We recognize the pace of arriving migrants creates enormous logistical and financial challenges for the new administration, challenges that are exacerbated by lack of action in previous administrations and by our Federal government as well as the intentionally disruptive actions of the governors of Texas and Florida. 

However, addressing these challenges requires acting openly and transparently, with full public accountability, as a complete break from Chicago’s historically concealed and corrosive decision-making. 

Tent encampments conjure images of inhumane detention centers and refugee camps. We have heard repeated claims that there was no choice but to enter into the GardaWorld contract, but see nothing to assure us that it is the only option for our city and that such encampments would not traumatize and dehumanize the population you seek to house. While temporary solutions are needed, they must respect human dignity and must be only a component of a long-term strategy to house the unhoused in Chicago—both arriving migrants and Chicagoans. We have yet to see such a strategy from the administration.

There are a number of critical questions that the Administration needs to answer—answers that must be shared with the City Council, organizational partners, and the general public. What options were considered for sheltering asylum seekers over the winter? Where will these camps be located to ensure access to food, healthcare, transportation, employment, and other essential wraparound services? Will tents offer sufficient protection as winter approaches? Will GardaWorld be providing security and other services at these encampments? Given GardaWorld’s history of human rights abuses, how can they be an appropriate contractor for the City of Chicago? If GardaWorld is providing security or services, what process will be in place to ensure that there is visibility, transparency, accountability and oversight? What provisions are being made to care for especially vulnerable migrants such as those that identify as LGBTQ+ or Trans and those who have been the victims of sexual violence?Critically, what is the role of temporary shelter, in tents or otherwise, and how will the City transition new arrivals to longer-term housing? 

The city should be transparent in identifying all of the housing options that have been and are being considered. What are the long-term options for housing newly-arrived asylum seekers? What buildings does the city currently own? What additional buildings can be acquired? What would it take to make them acceptable homes? 

The Chicago we know – and believe in – has the public, private, and non-profit capacity to take up the work of converting the thousands of buildings that sit unused or underutilized in our city to create affordable housing options that can be integrated into our communities. 

With the information that we currently have, we are unable to support a decision to contract with GardaWorld to build tent encampments. City leaders must be forthcoming in answering these and other related questions, so that any decision to proceed with tent encampments and GardaWorld can be publically and thoroughly evaluated before it is finalized. 

Our city–and the new residents we welcome–deserve nothing less. 

Respectfully, 

Indivisible Chicago Alliance Board of Directors 

About Indivisible Chicago: Indivisible Chicago is a progressive coalition with nearly 30,000 members and neighborhood Chapters throughout the region. Recognized as a national leader in the grassroots movement to foster a more just and democratic society, we work to advance progressive policies, elect progressive candidates, and hold public officials accountable.