Chicago Alderman Brian Hopkins: Biden ‘Let Border Remain Open’ Prompting Rising Crime, Declining Property Value

Alderman Brian Hopkins (D) on February 3, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:20 PM – Thursday, December 28, 2023

Chicago Democrat Alderman Brian Hopkins stated on Thursday’s “CNN News Central” program that the city simply cannot accommodate anymore asylum-seekers and that, due to this fact, “we’re seeing crime go up, property values go down,” and “we’re seeing communities destabilized.”

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“Every day that goes by while we let the border remain open and while we let cities try to address this humanitarian crisis, it gets worse by the day,” he added.

“We’re seeing communities destabilized. We’re seeing an influx of new residents who simply don’t have a place to reside. The impact of the local shelters is having a detrimental effect on the quality of life for local residents. We’re seeing crime go up, property values go down. It’s creating a political crisis, as well as stress between communities. … We desperately need decompression in Chicago. We’ve got 30,000 migrants. We simply can’t handle any more. We’re not equipped for it,” Hopkins continued.

He added that a decompression strategy would include some illegal immigrants getting work permits and possible permanent housing for them and their families.

Hopkins concluded his frustrations by stating, “I’m a Democrat, but I’ll say the Biden administration has absolutely dropped the ball, I’m not going to let them off the hook. They have left us in the ditch with this, and that’s unacceptable. What I’m hearing now is encouraging, we needed to hear this a year ago when this crisis first started in Chicago, we had a trickle that led to a torrent, and now we’re spending 300 million of our own funds, that’s about 5% of our federal municipal budget to address a problem that didn’t even exist a year a half ago, where’s the federal government been? Where has the Biden administration been? It’s not too late to do the right thing, but every day that goes by while we let the border remain open and while we let cities try to address this humanitarian crisis, it gets worse by the day. And I’ve lost patience, as you can probably tell.”

Hopkins’s comments follow virtual press conferences by Democrat mayors like New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, pleading with the Biden administration to extend federal assistance to manage the severe immigration crisis.

According to Johnson, the population growth in Chicago is “not sustainable” in the absence of “significant federal support.”

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