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Officials are also incorporating concerns over migrants into their security planning for the convention. And the governors office has begun a public pleading and shaming campaign with the Biden administration to do more to stem migrant flows to the border and open up resources for states and municipalities to deal with migrant buses being sent to them.

Speaking to reporters recently, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he is confident that local officials will be able to handle whatever spate of migrants arrive in the leadup to the convention as long as they get sufficient federal support.

We will manage it but we need to have the city and the state working together. We need the federal government at the table here, he said during a discussion put on by the University of Chicagos Institute of Politics.

Pritzker recently told CBS Face the Nation that someone needs to work in Texas with these border politicians to have them stop sending people only to blue cities and blue states.

That convention planners are having to strategize around a flow of migrants at all shows the degree to which migrants have become both a headache for Democrats in major cities and a national political issue.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnsons office said that its trying to get a handle on the migrant situation now so it wont be a problem when the Democratic Partys luminaries gather at the United Center to formally nominate a presidential nominee.

The administration sent a delegation to Texas border towns last week to better understand the process of moving migrants across the country.

I dont know if its a concern or just an additional challenge that we know that were going to have to deal with, Johnsons chief of staff Richard Guidice told POLITICO. He is tasked with helping to manage the behind-the-scenes logistical planning for the convention.

Optically you certainly want to show Chicago in its best light, said Guidice. As part of the process, you identify all things that potentially could happen in any large scale event.

The challenge for Chicago is trying to find inhabitable space. It costs money to remove asbestos in empty structures and make them livable, for example. Operations to get asylum-seekers off the floors of the airport and police stations before Chicagos notoriously frigid winter is challenging, too. And neither the city nor the state budgets have the surpluses needed.

Its expensive, said Jason Lee, the mayors chief adviser. But there is potentially a pathway to being able to manage the influx.

The confluence of incoming migrants just as the convention is revving up could also be a major security issue as well, added Lee. Extra bodies around creates a headache for security officials who need clear pathways for high-profile individuals.

Officials with the convention host committee in Chicago and the Democratic National Convention Committee largely dismissed the idea that the bussing of migrants could cause some sort of disruption or embarrassment.

The convention team supports the efforts of city and state officials working around the clock to ensure that migrants being sent to Chicago are treated with the dignity and respect that all human beings deserve, the convention planners said in a joint statement.

The party has sought to position itself as welcoming of immigrants. And Chicago, run by Democratic officials, also wants to be a welcoming city inside a welcoming state.

But Republicans have argued that such posturing is largely bluster and that, presented with the migrant numbers they face on a daily basis, blue states would change their tune. Chicago has seen more than 18,000 asylum seekers since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott started sending buses to Chicago in August 2022, according to Johnsons administration.

And frustration is mounting. Pritzker blamed Republican governors for sending people to our state like cargo in a dehumanizing attempt to score political points. It was part of a letter the Democratic governor wrote to President Joe Biden that called for more help in managing asylum seekers coming to Chicago.

His comment was a jab at Abbott, who has sent migrants to Chicago as well as New York City and Washington, D.C., over the past year.

Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, acknowledged that Texas has increased the number of migrants being sent to Illinois and other states. Texas has ramped up our busing mission to help our local partners in Eagle Pass and other border towns, and we are prepared to provide as many buses as necessary to provide relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities, he said in a statement to POLITICO.

Other cities including Denver and New York are sending asylum seekers to Illinois, too, often because the new arrivals request to go there.

After sending his letter, Pritzker said he got a quick response from White House officials. Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security, which is managing the humanitarian effort, visited Chicago recently to see first-hand the situation that has migrants sleeping on the floors of police stations and Chicago OHare International Airport where Democratic delegates will be arriving when they come for the convention next year.

The DHS team is working with Chicago officials to assess the current migrant situation and identify ways that the city and the federal government can improve efficiencies and maximize resources, said a person who didnt have authority to be named.

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Chicago faces a migrant crisis as it prepares to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention - POLITICO - POLITICO

By Ed Ra

New York City is home to many famous landmarks and attractions, such as Times Square, Wall Street and New York-style pizza. Yet what people associate with New York today is the migrant crisis, a growing and complex problem with statewide consequences. Since the spring of 2022, more than 116,100 migrants have flooded into the state. The lack of planning by Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams has resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis and a strain on public resources. Our local communities are shouldering the burden of providing essential services such as health care, education and social services to migrants and their families, stretching their resources thin. This crisis isnt just a federal issue; it affects every corner of our state. From Long Island to Buffalo, from the five boroughs to the North Country, its consequences are felt by our citizens, our communities and our local governments. The humanitarian challenges and security concerns stemming from the influx of migrants at our borders and throughout our state demand immediate and comprehensive attention. We must convene a special session of the State Legislature to address this crisis, and act now to protect the interests of our state and its residents. Protecting our communities and upholding the principles of compassion and humanitarianism are not mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, neither of these standards is currently being met. The Assemblys Republican conference has been calling for these actions for several months, but has been met with silence. Even more troublesome, federal and state leaders continue to dance around the problem with backward approaches such as offering nearly a half-million Venezuelan migrants legal status and work permits. We dont want immigrants sitting idly, but there must be a process in place to ensure that public safety and resources are maintained.

Ed Ra, who represents the 19th Assembly District, is the ranking Republican on the Assembly Ways & Means Committee.

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Legislators in Albany need to tackle the migrant crisis - liherald.com

Gov. Kathy Hochul once again extended an executive order that declares a state of emergency in response to the arrival of migrants, her office said Monday.

According to the governor, the order will give the state more flexibility to procure the resources for local municipalities to support asylum seekers and provide humanitarian aid.It also continues to allow New York state to mobilize members of the National Guard, which currently provide logistical and operational support at shelter sites.

While New York continues to respond to the asylum seeker crisis, Im extending our State of Emergency to ensure communities have the resources needed to support our ongoing efforts, Hochul said in a statement. My administration remains committed to ensuring state and local officials have all of the support they need to address this unprecedented humanitarian crisis."

The executive order on migrants was issued by Hochul on May 11 and reissued in August. This extension runs through Nov. 21.

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Hochul extends state of emergency over migrant situtation - Spectrum News

A town in Rockland County is cracking down on property management companies and absentee owners looking to make money off the migrant crisis.

The town of Clarkstown is going after those who are illegally renting out houses, often to multiple families.

Officials in the town say profiteers are increasingly illegally converting single-family homes in neighborhoods and packing in renters. The conditions in some after often dangerous for the families, as well as first responders.

One tenant said there are five families living in a single-family home in New City, a home recently raided by Clarkstown inspectors. Pictures show beds in the attic, accessible only through a crawl space.

"Had there been a fire here, people would have died. There's only way in and out of that attic, it's up a flight of steps and then through an opening that you have to crawl through," Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann said.

The News 4 I-Team was unable to reach the owner.

Clarkstown's supervisor said a number of absentee owners in the town are utilizing one property management company: First Choice. Hoehmann said the firm operates 37 properties in Clarkstown and 302 more throughout the rest of the county. At the moment, 17 of the properties are a concern.

"They've denied access at multiple locations, were non-responsive when violations have been issued. These are houses that were allegedly altered, systematically altered, in violation of our building codes," the supervisor said Thursday.

The town began investigating in September after inspectors found 34 migrants living in an illegally converted house in New City run by First Choice. A judge ordered the home vacated and restored to a single-family dwelling.

Clarkstown is now going to court to try and get access to the 17 homes First Choice oversees and make sure they are up to code. Officials and first responders are calling for more oversight of the property management companies and resources from the state to battle the illegal housing issue.

A state Supreme Court judge gave New York City and New York State at least one more week to settle their differences over the right to shelter in New York. Melissa Russo reports.

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Rockland County says landlords are packing migrant families into homes for profits - NBC New York

New York Citys homeless system is sheltering record numbers of people week after week, as an influx of migrants accelerates to its highest rate since the crisis began.

The city is moving more and more migrants out of its vast network of emergency shelters by combining pressure tactics with help in finding permanent housing. But the jump in arrivals to more than 500 people per day in recent weeks has outpaced those efforts.

So Mayor Eric Adams is now trying a tougher approach. He is taking aim at families with children the bulk of the migrant population flooding into the city with measures that may stretch the boundaries of New Yorks legal obligation to provide shelter.

On Monday, the mayor announced a 60-day limit on how long a family can stay at any one shelter. After that, the family must return to an intake center and reapply for shelter. A similar limit was imposed on single adults over the summer, and later reduced to 30 days.

Expanding this policy to all asylum-seekers in our care is the only way to help migrants take the next steps on their journeys, Mr. Adams said in a statement.

He also said that a new 500-family shelter being built at a defunct Brooklyn airport would not provide families with their own rooms. Instead, there will be an open floor plan with locked privacy dividers between living spaces.

Advocates for homeless people criticized the plan immediately. The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said in a joint statement that forcing families to move every two months would disrupt access to education for the thousands of migrant children who are enrolled in the citys public schools (federal law lets homeless students stay in the same school if they move, but moving could mean longer commutes). And housing families in cramped and open cubicles at Floyd Bennett Field, the former airport, may violate state regulations governing family homeless shelters, the groups said.

The city comptroller, Brad Lander, who has often criticized the mayors handling of the migrant crisis, echoed the groups concerns.

Denying families with children the stability of a private room and curtailing their shelter stay is a shortsighted, cruel step, he said in a statement.

Mr. Adams has been searching desperately for ways to contain the cost of housing and feeding migrants, a figure he has estimated will reach $12 billion over three years. More than 130,000 people fleeing economic and political upheaval, mostly in Latin America, have come to the city since last year. Over 65,000 are now in shelters.

New York has been a magnet for migrants in part because it is the only major U.S. city that must provide a bed for every homeless person who asks for one the result of a decades-old court case.

During the three-week period ending Oct. 15, migrants moved out of shelters at a rate of nearly 350 per day, a review of city data shows. That would have made a dent in the population a few months ago. Not any longer. The number of migrants arriving with nowhere to live has risen since June, from about 300 a day to about 535 a day during the past three weeks the most the city has recorded.

On Oct. 4, the city asked a judge to suspend the so-called right to shelter for single adults. The next day, Mr. Adams left for a trip to Latin America to try to persuade hundreds of thousands of migrants headed north that conditions in New York City might not be as welcoming as they had heard.

When you see children making the long trek through a jungle and then having to live in conditions of congregate shelters, of not having the real environment that they deserve, he said in Mexico City, it just makes it extremely challenging.

Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a research organization, said the increase in migration to New York was most likely linked to increases in crossings at the southern border. CBS News reported that Border Patrol agents had apprehended 210,000 people last month between official ports of entry along the Mexican border, up from 180,000 in August and more than double the 99,000 apprehended in June.

In early October, many migrants interviewed in Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia said the mayors warnings about life in New York would not dissuade them from coming, although some said they were headed elsewhere after friends told them jobs and housing were scarce in the city.

At a hotel shelter in Queens where she has lived since May, Viviana Verde said on Monday that if she were transferred to a shelter with less privacy, she would find a way to leave the system instead.

I just cant imagine going to a place with many more families, said Ms. Verde, 36, who migrated from Venezuela with her husband and gave birth to a daughter last month.

But Ms. Verde said she did not know how she and her husband would be able to afford rent. They are eligible to get working papers but need $1,500 for a lawyer to process the documents, she said. Her husband has been working a little fixing motorcycles outside the shelter, she said, but almost all the money we earn, we spend on food and things for the baby.

Speaking on Tuesday outside the Row NYC hotel, a large family shelter in Midtown Manhattan, Javier Tovar, 28, was dismayed to hear about the 60-day rule.

We want to get out of here, but we need time, said Mr. Tovar, who did construction work in Venezuela and came to the United States with his wife and three children a month ago.

If they give us 60 days in the shelter, well, it will be Gods will, but there is a lot of confusion and worry, he added. We are already afraid that they will deport us since we only recently entered the country.

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As More Migrants Arrive in New York, Adams Toughens Approach to Shelters - The New York Times