Migrants sheltered at the Calumet 5th Precinct Chicago Police Station in the community of Pullman reported being left to spend the night outdoors in low temperatures Tuesday night.
The immigrants told CBS News Chicago that they were forced to leave and take their belongings.
Marybel González told the outlet on Tuesday night that the moment she ordered the migrants to leave the site was filmed by a camera. In the recording you can see some of them collecting their belongings from the lobby and, although they could be seen entering and leaving the police station, they say that they were not allowed to spend the night inside.
In the audiovisual material, a captain from the Calumet district can be seen telling the immigrants who are in the lobby of the station, located at 727 E. 111th Street, to leave.
“This is not a game,” the captain is heard saying. “I want everyone to leave this station; out of this hall… all this garbage out of here.”
For their part, volunteers who work with immigrants at the police station indicated that this occurred after some of the asylum seekers were transferred to a shelter on Tuesday.
According to them, the captain insisted to the people who did not go to the shelter that they could not sleep in the lobby, despite the intense cold outside.
Some of the applicants declared that there was no longer a place for them. Others said they did not want to stay in a shelter and expressed that the eviction order seemed like retaliation for staying, CBS News Chicago reported.
Chicago police were asked about the aforementioned video and whether their policy on allowing migrants to sleep in their lobbies had changed and responded that the outlet should make those questions to the Office of Communications and Emergency Management, which until now He has not commented on the matter.
On Tuesday night, after the report aired at 10 p.m., Chicago Police News Affairs told CBS that the migrants were not expelled from the police station and were, in fact, allowed to sleep. over there.
After hearing that the migrants would have to spend the night on the frigid streets of Chicago, volunteer Jenny Leal and her sister rushed to find an apartment where a few could stay.
They were able to shelter four immigrants on Tuesday night.
“Our hearts are broken for them,” said Leal. “You know, you’re out here in the cold, and it shouldn’t be like that. It shouldn’t be, for anyone. We also serve the homeless in Chicago.”
Asylum seekers also said they want work permits so they can move to their own places. Adding that while they are grateful to the officials who let them stay at the station until now, they feel the way they were required to leave and stay in the bitter cold was inhumane.
Starting this Wednesday, a network of 17 churches in the city will welcome at least 100 people from police stations into their spaces to offer them temporary shelter.
Volunteers indicated that could be why police stations are asking immigrants to leave.
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