South Cook News

Chicago Republican Chairman Steve Boulton is calling for a congressional hearing into spending by the city of Chicago to turn Wadsworth Elementary School into a housing complex for immigrants who've entered the country illegally.

“The City government has spent over $20 million in state funds, $5.5 million in federal tax dollars through FEMA, and they are asking for $50 million more from the federal government,” Boulton said. “Gov. Pritzker needs to learn that there is a better use for all those millions in state money - spend it on economic development on the South Side for the people who live here! Which elected officials approved this? Where is IL-01 Rep. Jonathan Jackson, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and Sen. Dick Durbin? Why won’t they face the people of this community?” 

Community activist Paul McKinley said the local leadership on the issue is lacking. “Alderman Taylor says she’s been blindsided by the mayor but we don’t believe it,” McKinley said, according to the Chicago GOP.  “The mayor has told lie after lie about this project, and if the Alderman believed Lightfoot, then she was a fool, since this has been coming for months.”  

“Are there bad apples in there? Because we are hearing that cartel members are in there and Pritzker can’t force them on us! The mayor has been parking migrants without warning all over the area, under the radar and away from the media,” Boulton said, noting that two other closed schools are in just Woodlawn alone. “Pritzker and Lightfoot will not stop until the communities stand up to them.”

Residents from Woodlawn, which is majority Black, protested the resettlement efforts in the community in an early January event. One resident noted, “'There’s plenty of room in Little Village for their people. We are very disappointed in this decision that Mayor Lightfoot has made to place these migrants in our community without our permission,” the unidentified resident said in a video, South Cook News reported. “Mayor Lightfoot would never pull this type of thing in anyone's neighborhood. She would not drop off a busload of Haitians in Little Village. She would not drop off a busload of Black people in Chinatown. She would not drop off a busload of Black people up north. So it's time for Mayor Lightfoot to understand we will no longer be disrespected by you, ma'am. Please withdraw your decision to put the migrants in our community.”

Twentieth Ward Ald. Jeanette Taylor said the city was pausing work on the school. “We are unnecessarily causing tension and friction between African Americans and Latinos,” Ald. Ray Lopez told the Chicago Tribune. “It was painful to watch … to see the amount of pain caused to Woodlawn and the amount of ignorance that it’s creating. … Democratic cities are absolutely helping prove the point that many of the big cities that say they are welcoming in name only, as long as no one shows up.”

The school is located at 6420 S. University Ave. in Woodlawn. Its intended use has been described as a “shelter” for 250 people. The city is trying to find homes for some 1,500 immigrants of the 4,000 or so Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bused to the city.