A Texas charter bus company has filed suit against the city of Chicago, claiming the city is unconstitutionally impounding buses transporting so-called "migrants" from Texas to Chicago and is discriminating against the "migrants" by trying to effectively dictate where they can go after they are released by border patrol agents.
On Jan. 5, Wynne Transportation, a bus service based in Irving, Texas, sued the city in Chicago federal court, asserting City Hall under Mayor Brandon Johnson overstepped its authority and has attempted to sidestep both thorny political questions and the U.S. Constitution in amending a city ordinance that the city claims gives them the authority to regulate the arrival of any bus, anywhere in the city.
The ordinance was enacted in December 2023 in response to the efforts of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to alleviate the pressure felt by the state of Texas and American communities along the Mexico border to deal with an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration across the U.S. southern border.
Christopher J. Esbrook
| esbrooklaw.com
Abbott and others have noted the surge is in large part the result of policy choices put in place by the administration of President Joe Biden, who they say has all but invited people from throughout the world to simply walk across the Mexican border and then avoid deportation by claiming to seek asylum. Those entering the country in this way who are apprehended by border patrol officers are typically issued a notice to appear in court to judge their asylum claims. But with court dates years in the future, the so-called "migrants" are then allowed to roam the country freely, in the meantime.
In 2023, Abbott launched Operation Lonestar, which he said was specifically intended to transport "migrants" out of Texas to so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions, like Chicago and New York, where Democratic officials, like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago's mayors, including Johnson and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, have castigated the alleged racism and xenophobia of Republican-led states, like Texas, for efforts undertaken to stem the flow of such illegal immigration and reduce the burdens placed by such largely unregulated immigration on their state and local communities.
While such "sanctuary" jurisdictions like Chicago have experienced but a small fraction of the influx of immigrants that have been felt in places like Texas, the sudden surge has been enough to leave officials in Illinois and Chicago scrambling to find ways to care for the arrivals and, for instance, prevent them from freezing to death amid a typical Illinois winter.
As part of the haphazard response, City Hall under the Johnson administration altered a city ordinance regulating bus traffic, expanding its scope from merely giving the city authority to prevent charter bus companies from using city bus stops, to now allowing the city to fine bus operators and seize their vehicles if they drop passengers off anywhere in the city without permission from the city.
Under that ordinance, Wynne said some of the buses operated by its contractor bus charters have been impounded.
The company said the ordinance and the subsequent vehicle impoundments are all unconstitutional.
The lawsuit asserts the city enacted the ordinance specifically to attempt to avoid addressing outcry from the public over the city's contradictory approach to dealing with the issue. On one hand, the city claims to be welcoming to such immigrants. On the other, the city, stung by the financial and logistical burden imposed by the surge in unexpected arrivals and the need to redirect city resources away from current city residents, is taking steps to discourage their arrival altogether.
But political questions aside, the lawsuit asserts the city's ordinance unconstitutionally intrudes on the federal government's sole authority to regulate both immigration and interstate commerce.
Further, the lawsuit asserts the city ordinance violates out-of-state bus companies' equal protection rights, by singling them out for such treatment.
And the lawsuit claims the city's ordinance violates the rights of immigrants, who they say have all chosen voluntarily to travel to Chicago.
"Rather than welcoming migrants and giving them sanctuary, Chicago is turning its back on those wishing to travel here by enacting an ordinance that targets the transportation companies that transport migrants from our southern border to their desired destination - Chicago - in violation of Plaintiff’s constitutional rights," the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and void and require the city to pay unspecified compensatory damages to Wynne for the city's actions against its buses and contractors, plus pay attorney fees.
Wynne is represented in the action by attorneys Michael Kozlowski, Christopher J. Esbrook and Marie Plecha, of the firm of Esbrook P.C., of Chicago.