Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso said he didn’t think migrants from the southern border are any concern for residents of the suburban community.
The topic came up Monday at the village board meeting as an item of general discussion. No one from the community spoke on the issue and board members seemed to agree with the mayor. On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune reported a busload of migrants arrived by bus to Glen Ellyn. They arrived Friday, early in the morning, at the Metra station with the plan to take the train to the city, but they missed the train as it was leaving and were left stranded for hours, hungry in freezing temperatures clad in T-shirts and sandals.
The busload was the latest in a wave of immigrants dropped in suburban Cook County after the City of Chicago began issuing steep fines to bus companies for dropping off unscheduled migrants. Several suburban communities followed suit, after those companies began unloading the people at suburban Metra stations.
However, Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso noted that Burr Ridge has no Metra station and, so far, has not had any recent issue with migrants, though the village did wind up with some in 2022 which it housed briefly in a hotel. Still, Grasso said with all the publicity, he wanted to have a discussion on the topic.
“I asked (Village Administrator) Evan (Walter) to put this on the agenda tonight because its been in the news a lot. I haven’t gotten too many questions about it.”
So far, neither residents nor police have seen anything like what happened in Glen Ellyn, let alone the potential political fallout from a sudden influx of needy visitors.
Nevertheless, Grasso said he’s in touch with nearly 300 mayors around the Chicagoland, all of whom are eyeing the issue of migrant movement and temporary care and housing, and lately Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has gotten in touch to coordinate response information.
For that matter, Grasso said even mayors who have had busloads of migrants — some of whom have come from countries as faraway as Venezuela — haven’t had any real problems aside from those immediate concerns of shelter, food and clothing.
“I haven’t gotten anything negative about it,” Grasso said. “This morning I confirmed with all the villages around Chicago that even though the migrants were being dropped off at train stations — and we don’t have a train station — I asked of all the mayors present has anyone had any problem with any of the migrants in the last few months and it was zero problems, nobody has had any problems.”
Grasso said the influx of migrants in Chicago and the suburbs is originating at the Southern border and not the fault of local leadership.
Indeed, one trustee said local response has historically been robust and supportive. Trustee Guy Franzese said when the migrants arrived in Burr Ridge in August 2022, the administration acted quickly to tend to their needs and praised that response. He said he thinks mayors will manage this time, too.
“Nobody anticipated a year ago that the city of Chicago wouldn’t want buses of migrants dropped off in the city,” Franzese said, praising the mayor’s willingness to look ahead at the issue.
“Being proactive is the best thing and it’s about the safety of the migrants and the safety of our residents,” Franzese said. “Anything we can do to be proactive, we need to do, to do our part.”
Grasso thanked Johnson for trying to coordinate a response and he urged sympathy for the new arrivals, most of whom are seeking asylum.
“They want to be here because they want a better life, I truly believe that,” Grasso said. “And we’re all the product of similar people facing similar situations years ago.”
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
