Migrants overcrowd Chicago’s makeshift shelter at O’Hare Airport

CHICAGO (NewsNation) — The city of Chicago has been sheltering large groups of migrants at O’Hare International Airport, where asylum seekers say the living conditions are inhumane.

Texas started busing hundreds of thousands of migrants to Democratic-led cities in protest of federal border policies over a year ago. Along with many of the cities, Chicago has hit its housing breaking point.

And now, hundreds of asylum seekers are staying at the city’s Northwest Side airport as an overflow shelter.

A Chicago police officer confirmed Tuesday morning that there were 433 migrants currently sheltering at the airport.

The migrants have been forced to sleep on the airport’s floors behind large swaths of black curtains used to hide the growing humanitarian crisis. Many of these migrants told NewsNation they are concerned for their well-being.

“While they find another place for us to go, some have been here for 10 days. But people keep leaving and the city of Chicago will take us and will find a place for us to stay,” Rayberth, a migrant from Venezuela who has been staying at O’Hare’s make-shift shelter for four days now, told NewsNation.

Rayberth said the facility is overcrowded with hundreds of migrants, many of whom are children.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the groups of more than 400 migrants are well over the capacity limit set by the city, and a huge spike from the merely 31 migrants at the beginning of August.

Images and videos from behind the curtain revealed what conditions are like in the confined spaces.

One migrant, who feared repercussions if they spoke with the media on camera, sent NewsNation a text message about the overflow shelter’s conditions, claiming the situation is truly inhumane.

“Here, we are truly in conditions that are not at all humane. There are many children sick to their stomachs and other things because the food they are being given is not adequate food,” the migrant said.

A volunteer medical team responded to an “emergency assignment” at the airport last weekend, treating more than 300 patients, including more than 100 children, many vomiting from the food provided to them, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

At the airport, NewsNation tried to speak with city workers and organizers with Favorite Healthcare Staffing but they said they were instructed not to speak to the media.

“No one likes to live here. It’s just a process that we have to wait for to be called and then we can leave. You are not going to be there for months, you are only going to be there for days while the city finds a place for you,” Rayberth said.

Just last week, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed a letter with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker asking the federal government to streamline work authorization for asylum seekers.

In a social media post, Johnson said, “Chicago nears the one-year mark of receiving nearly 14,000 new migrant arrivals from politicians’ inhumane practices.”

On Monday, a bus of migrants was dropped off at the airport and another group boarded the bus right after the first group got off.

The driver of the bus told NewsNation that the migrants were being transported to a separate facility where they could shower and properly bathe as they continue sheltering at O’Hare.

NewsNation reached out to the mayor’s office, Alderman Ray Lopez’s office and Favorite Healthcare Staff for comment but have not yet received a response.