Black Chicago residents slammed Democrats for putting migrant causes over the needs of the city in interviews conducted by NumbersUSA.
NumbersUSA, an immigration policy advocacy group, spoke to black Chicago residents while the Democratic National Convention (DNC) took place in the city, with many expressing discontent with the party’s policies on immigration that have affected their community. Chicago welcomed over 46,000 migrants since August 2022 who were flown and bused in from Texas, according to city data.
“It’s just been a disaster. They started off putting the immigrants over in the police station, and as they started to move them out of the police station, they started to put them in our neighborhoods,” Chicago resident Adrian Wright said. “The neighborhood didn’t want them. The residents, the citizens, we pushed back, but the deal was already done … They were bringing in a lot of military-aged men into the community, I mean, we’re not blind, we’re not stupid … unfortunately, the people who run this city, they don’t care what the people think.”
Chicago has spent approximately $150 million to feed and house migrants, with the single-day cost being $667,000. Ahead of the DNC, Chicago had 5,000 beds ready for migrants and more in case of overflow.
“Everybody says that the Democratic party has an agenda behind bringing immigrants over, because they can no longer depend on the black vote, so they’re trying to replace our votes,” Pamela Henning, another Chicago resident, said.
Black voters support Harris by a wide margin, with 77% supporting her compared to 13% for former President Donald Trump, according to Pew Research Data released Thursday. Trump is gaining marginal ground with the demographic, with 12% supporting him in July compared with 9% in May and June, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
“The Democratic party realizes that the black vote is dwindling because the Democratic party has not delivered for the black community in the way that the black community has delivered for the Democratic Party in terms of votes,” resident Doris Lewis said.
Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in June that the migrant crisis has become “unsustainable,” with the city beginning enforcing its 60-day limit for migrants in taxpayer-funded shelters in March. Johnson blamed “Trump Republicans” for the crisis during a June 12 press conference.
Voters appear to trust Trump more on handling immigration, with the former president holding a 13-point lead on the issue over Harris, according to a Fox News poll.
“Immigration, period, is a problem … Illegal immigration is crushing the whole country. Stop saying, ‘I’m okay with the immigration,’ speak the truth,” resident Terra Carter-Sinkevicius said.
Migrants also often take up jobs in sectors that frequently employ black Americans, with the increase in labor supply depressing wages, according to experts who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation. Corporate media outlets derided Trump when he said that migrants were taking “black jobs” at a Q&A at the National Association of Black Journalists.
“A lot of the American citizens, black citizens, did not realize what [migrants] were here for, but once they got here, they started to bring them into the black community, and we started to do research, and that’s when I found out that it was Kamala Harris that opened the borders up in California and allowed all the gangs, the Mexican gangs, to come across,” Chicago Pastor David Lowry explained.
Border Patrol had over 2 million encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, with 1.4 million already in fiscal year 2024, according to Customs and Border Patrol data. Additionally, there have been 1.7 million known “gotaways” that evaded border patrol since President Joe Biden took office as of fiscal year 2023, according to the House Committee on Homeland Security.
“[Democrats] are making us think there’s no structure because they violated immigration laws by opening the borders,” Lowry said.
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