Only 1% of newly arrived migrants in Chicago have received work permits so far, city data show
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With more than 14,000 migrants living in one of the city-operated shelters, only a fraction of the asylum seekers who arrived over the past 16 months have received the permits they need to start looking for jobs.
As of Monday morning, city officials said 14,717 asylum seekers were staying in the city's 27 shelters, and more than half of those are coming up on the city's 60-day limit for staying in shelters.
Yet the amount of migrants able to work right now is minuscule.
CBS 2 has obtained internal city data that suggests only 1% of asylum seekers here have gotten that golden ticket to get to work.
Sources said around 1% of more than 26,000 migrants who have arrived in Chicago since August 2022 have received work permits and Social Security cards.
It's unclear how many applications have been submitted. Still, as of Dec. 29, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had processed work permits and temporary protected status applications for only 1,480 new arrivals, according to city data obtained by CBS 2.
Once those applications are processed, they also need to be approved. Sources said only 284 have gotten work permits, and 279 have received their Social Security card. That's about 1%.
Worse, city data suggests applications did not start processing until the week of Nov. 9.
"This is a test for all of us for as Americans, our land of immigrants and opportunity, to prove that this generation is willing to help," U.S. Sen Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said in November. "There's more to do. We didn't choose this challenge; it came our way by someone else's decision. The question is, what do we make of it?"
Meanwhile, more buses arrive in Chicago. Over the weekend, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott chartered a private plane that brought 350 migrants to Rockford, where they boarded buses to Chicago.
It was the second time a private flight transporting migrants from Texas landed in the Chicago area.
Those migrants will face a 60-day shelter stay limit. Nearly 9,000 asylum seekers already staying in shelters are approaching their 60-day limit on Feb. 1, the largest group to face a deadline to move out or apply for an extension.
The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for the number of migrants who have submitted work permit applications.
City officials were not expecting any new buses to bring more migrants to the dedicated landing zone in Chicago on Monday.
Tuesday night, the village board in northwest suburban Buffalo Grove is expected to vote on an ordinance of their own to crack down on so-called "rogue" buses that have been dropping off migrants in the city and suburbs without notice, joining a growing list of suburbs to do so.
