Pritzker Pleads With Texas Gov. To Stop Sending Migrants To IL

ILLINOIS — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wrote a stern letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday, pleading with his gubernatorial to stop busloads full of migrants to Illinois as temperatures are expected to plunge below zero this weekend and remain frigid for the coming week.

Writing that the ongoing international migrant crisis requires “a strong, compassionate, and humane response”, Pritzker instead accused Abbott of sending migrants to Illinois to “score political points.”

Pritzker wrote that the Texas governor has chosen to “sow chaos” by sending busloads of asylum seekers to Illinois, often announced. In response, several Chicago-area suburban communities have been forced to enact policies to respond to migrants who arrive in their villages and towns via bus before migrants board Metra trains for Chicago’s Welcoming Center.

As buses continue to arrive around the greater Chicago area, Pritzker pleaded to Abbott “for the mercy of thousands of people who are powerless to speak for themselves.” He wrote that oftentimes, Abbott is sending migrants to the upper Midwest without winter clothing at a time when temperatures are expected to reach dangerous levels beginning on Sunday after Friday’s major winter storm moves out.

“We refuse to play your political game of exploiting the most vulnerable for the sake of culture wars and talking points,” Pritzker wrote in the letter on Friday. “You seem to have no interest in working on bipartisan solutions to the border crisis because that would put an end to your cruel political game, but I am writing to you to appeal to your humanity.”

Pritzker continues by addressing the subzero temperatures and wind-chills that will make being outdoors dangerous. He “strongly urges” Abbott to stop sending migrants to Illinois in such dangerous conditions and without prior notice and at “improper locations at all hours of the night.”

“As we grapple with the existing challenges of your ongoing manufactured crisis, the next few days are a threat to the families and children you are sending here,” Pritzker wrote. “I am pleading with you to at least pause these transports in order to save lives.”

Pritzker said that while Congress has yet to act on the migrant crisis and create federal legislation in how to deal with the ongoing situation, he wrote that the sanctity of life should be considered on both sides of the political aisle.

“Right now, we are talking about human beings and their survival,” the governor wrote in closing. “I hope we can at least agree on saving lives right now.”