Published TUESDAY, January 16, 2024: 'Sanctuary City Blues' Pictures by ZUMA Press represented Chicago Tribune's photographer's Antonio Perez, Armando L. Sanchez and Chris Sweda and Story By reporter Nell Salzman: When the governor of Texas started busing migrants elsewhere in 2023, the border crisis arrived in places like Chicago, which has to provide housing for the thousands of mostly Venezuelan migrants. Southern border states are sending migrants to Chicago and other immigration-friendly U.S. cities that have no clear plan to care for them. Police stations have become the most visible evidence of how the wave of asylum seekers arriving are stretching the 'Windy City' to the limit. Welcome to 'Sanctuary City Blues'.
© zReportage.com Issue #923 Story of the Week: Published TUESDAY, January 16, 2024: 'Sanctuary City Blues' Pictures by ZUMA Press represented Chicago Tribune's photographer's Antonio Perez, Armando L. Sanchez and Chris Sweda and Story By reporter Nell Salzman: When the governor of Texas started busing migrants elsewhere in 2023, the border crisis arrived in places like Chicago, which has to provide housing for the thousands of mostly Venezuelan migrants. Southern border states are sending migrants to Chicago and other immigration-friendly U.S. cities that have no clear plan to care for them. Police stations have become the most visible evidence of how the wave of asylum seekers arriving are stretching the 'Windy City' to the limit. Welcome to 'Sanctuary City Blues'.

PEDRO MATOS, 30, his wife FRANGENY MENDOZA, 27, and their son EDIOMAR MENDOZA, 8, all from Venezuela, prepare to sleep outdoors in a park across the street from the 22nd District Police Station in Chicago.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

Venezuelan migrant PEDRO CUERO, 38, prays before having a free meal at St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy Catholic Church in Oak Park.
© Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

PEDRO LUIS MENDEZ, 9, a migrant from Venezuela traveling with his family, looks out the window at the Chicago city skyline, after riding a train for 18-hours with from Denver to the 'Windy City'.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

BRIANYERLIS CARRENO, 10, from Venezuela, holds her 8-month old brother MATEO VARGAS outside the Chicago Police 12th District station on the day Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared a state of emergency in response to the thousands of migrants who have arrived in the city.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

A Chicago police officer briefly draws with a child after setting up a large piece of paper as Venezuelan migrant families take shelter in the lobby of the 17th District Chicago police station.
© Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

Jose Urribarri displays the chickenpox on his son, JOSE LEONARDO, 3, outside the 18th District police station in Chicago. Leonardo's parents took Jose to a nearby health clinic after cold temperatures and snow hit the Chicago area.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

YOLEXI CUBILLAN, 19, sits on the floor while waiting in line with other migrants at an Illinois Department of Human Services office in Chicago. Yolexi waited at the office for over eight hours.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

HASSLY CESPEDES, 6, lays on cardboard outside the Chicago Police Department's 3rd District station with her parents, JONNI CESPEDES, 32, left, and ELIANY PINA, 26. Hassly and her brother Hassler Pina, 9, were told they couldn't enroll at Emmett Louis Till Math and Science Academy earlier in the day because the school lacked translation services.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

People mingle outside a designated shelter area at Daley College in Chicago. The city is expected to relocate some migrants from the YMCA to a new shelter at Daley College on Chicago's southwest side.
© Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

KARINA ARCHUNDIA, left, a migrant from Ecuador, greets volunteer CELINE WOZNICA with a hug and kiss as she and other migrants who are staying at a police station in Austin eat, shower and socialize at the rectory at St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy Catholic Church in Oak Park.
© Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

JULIANNA OVALLES, from left, ALEXA FLORES, MARIA CORTEZ and OSCAR BRACHO, all of Venezuela, listen to SAMANTHA OULAVONG as she teaches an English lesson in Margaret Hie Ding Lin Park in Chicago. Most of the group stays across the street at the Chicago Police Department's 1st District station.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

JOSE MENDOZA, 19, of Venezuela, serves food to other migrants from the back of a car outside the migrant shelter at Inn of Chicago in downtown.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

A traveler walks by a window while migrants lie on the ground at a makeshift shelter at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

Workers build a tent frame as they start constructing Chicago's first government-run tent encampment for migrants in the Brighton Park neighborhood.
© Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

JESSANA MALAUE holds daughter JESSMAR as she cries before they near their shelter near Pilsen after buying food at a WIC grocery in Chicago. Jessmar cried and told her mother she didn't want to go inside.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

Venezuelan migrant JESSMAR, 4, eats an apple after her mother, Jessana Malaue, 27, purchased food at a WIC grocery on West Cermak Road in Chicago. Malaue purchased three bags of produce from the WIC grocery due to shelter restrictions that limit migrants from keeping food that can't fit in a backpack under their cots.
© Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

BRAYAN LOZANO, an asylum-seeker from Colombia who has become a leader of the mutual aid group at the 1st District police station, talks with migrants camped outside the station.
© Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire

Under the glow of street lights, NATHAN MCCARTHY walks through a parking lot outside the 15th District police station, a space he shares with newly arrived migrants in Chicago's Austin neighborhood.
© Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire