A group of South Shore residents have sued the city of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools in an attempt to block a city plan to house migrants at the former South Shore High School.
Attorney Frank Avila filed the complaint May 9 in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of Natasha Dunn, Jimmy Jones and a group called the South Shore Neighbors. The complaint seeks a temporary restraining order concerning the building in the 7500 block of South Constance Avenue, which it asserts “has long been a vital institution within the South Shore community.”
According to the complaint, the Chicago City Council adopted an ordinance in March 2019 leasing the building with authorization to use it for city police and fire operations. But on May 2, 2023, according to the plaintiffs, the city “announced its intention to repurpose South Shore High School as a refugee center without seeking meaningful input from the community or conducting a transparent decision-making process. The lack of community input regarding such a significant and transformative undertaking has caused considerable distress and concern among the residents of South Shore.”
The complaint filed on behalf of the predominantly Black residents of the South Shore neighborhood raised further concerns about “potential violations of the existing zoning laws” and argued the city’s plan jeopardizes the safety of not just current residents but also the refugees targeted for placement in the old school. It said immigrant advocates oppose the plan because they “understand that simply throwing refugees into a building that is not fit for housing and a residential neighborhood that does not have the resources to support these refugees is a recipe for disaster.”
The plaintiffs said they learned of the plan via a May 2 text message, which included a screenshot of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Facebook page announcing a community meeting. Contacted about that meeting, the office of Ald. Michelle Harris said she “herself had only become aware of the situation on the same day (May 2), and the decision to house the asylum seekers had already been finalized.”
On May 3, the plaintiffs emailed Lightfoot, Harris and then Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson about their concerns. On May 4, the complaint alleged, the city conducted a “brief public meeting” during which “authorities delineated rules and regulations applicable exclusively to the housed migrants within the facility” without explaining “expectations for their conduct within the surrounding residential area.”
The complaint said Harris, in 2013, made assurances regarding community input on the old school, adding allegations the present situation “further exacerbated the erosion of trust between the community and its elected officials.” Although the Chicago Police Department commander who spoke at the May 4 meeting pledged 24-hour security protection for refugees, the plaintiffs said they’ve “witnessed significant delays in police response times for incidents occurring within the neighborhood, with response times ranging from four to six hours. This contradiction raises concerns about the ability of the authorities to fulfill their assurances.”
In seeking a restraining order, the plaintiffs argued the city cannot forgo its own statutory zoning obligations, said they have no other “practical or effective legal recourse” to halt the plan’s implementation and monetary damages would not restore the neighborhood or address the refugees’ wellbeing should the school later be deemed uninhabitable.
“Granting the temporary restraining order is vital to prevent irreparable harm to the plaintiff and the community,” the complaint said, “and to ensure that the court's eventual decision is based on a thorough examination of the legal issues at hand.”
The lawsuit comes against a backdrop of apparent immigration chaos at the U.S. border with Mexico, which has sent waves of migrants from Latin America and elsewhere in the world far into the interior of the U.S. The illegal immigration surge appears to have overwhelmed U.S. border security, and led to mass detention in apparently overcrowded facilities along the border and elsewhere. Reports indicate migrants who are detained are eventually being released into the country, some with court dates four years in the future, allowing them to live in the U.S. for years.
In Chicago, thousands of illegal immigrants have been housed in Chicago Police stations, awaiting different living arrangements. Elsewhere in the country, local and state governments have essentially commandeered hotels to house migrants.
In Illinois, programs to provide medical care to migrants are costing billions of dollars, despite assurances from the administration of Gov. JB Pritzker that the costs would only amount to millions.
Amid the problems, attorneys general and governors in Republican led states have taken to the courts to prevent the Biden administration from simply releasing migrants into their communities and the country, without any means of tracking them or compelling them to appear in court at any time.
Jonathan Bilyk contributed to this report.