DeKalb to consider ordinance regulating migrant arrivals

DeKALB – A plane carrying migrants from Texas that landed in Rockford Sunday has prompted DeKalb city officials to propose a plan that would regulate any future arrivals of unexpected migrant groups in town.

DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas said the city has been monitoring similar actions taken by authorities in other municipalities across northern Illinois trying to gauge the severity of the situation. In nearby Elburn, a busload of 38 migrants sent to Illinois from Texas arrived at the Metra train station days before Christmas. A city of fewer than 7,000 with no hotels, Elburn officials said they aren’t able to provide needed resources for migrants.

Nicklas said DeKalb would be put in a likewise tough spot were asylum seekers to arrive unexpectedly.

“What’s posed to us are the arrival abruptly and without warning of a busload, sometimes multiple busloads of people who have been led to believe that they’re going to be dropped in Chicago, but are dropped in a strange place,” Nicklas said Tuesday. “That puts the smaller communities with less resources at a disadvantage as far as meeting their needs.”

A special DeKalb City Council meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday at the DeKalb Public Library 309 Oak St., invites the public to weigh in on a proposed ordinance which, if approved, could deter the arrival of unscheduled bus drop-offs.

The proposed ordinance also would impose fines on drivers or impound buses if found in violation, according to city documents released Tuesday.

Migrants arriving in northern Illinois cities is the latest in a trend seen over the past year as Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration transports groups crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to Democratic-led cities, The Associated Press reported. Migrants were bound for the city of Chicago. Chicago city leaders, however, have since imposed penalties of their own on unscheduled bus drop-offs, saying the abrupt nature of the drop-offs doesn’t allow the city to adequately prepare to house those in need.

Unscheduled bus drop-offs – or a plane to a Rockford airport on New Year’s Eve, the Rockford Register Star reported – have occurred in the suburbs and collar counties in recent weeks, including Joliet, Elburn, Woodstock and Kankakee, among others. The Woodstock City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed a similar ordinance to the one DeKalb has proposed.

Vehicles that drop off passengers in Woodstock without filling out an application form five days in advance are subject to impoundment and fines of $750 per passenger.

Nicklas said he believes the city is raising the bar with its proposed ordinance compared to some communities.

City staff argue that the greater DeKalb area doesn’t have enough resources to properly house and care for large groups of people arriving without warning, documents show.

The last time the DeKalb area expended resources to aid a significant number of displaced people was in July 2019 after a series of devastating apartment fires.

One was at the former Hunter Ridgebrook Apartment complex. DeKalb-area social service agencies worked with the city to provide housing for 21 residents for a month after the DeKalb fire, and about 87 total were aided, expending more than $37,000, according to city documents. A subsequent apartment fire at St. Albans Green in Sycamore left about 120 permanently displaced, “exhausting” remaining social service resources, city staff said.

Nicklas said the proposed ordinance would outline plans to help provide resources and pay for those resources before any migrants would arrive.

“Anybody applying for a permit to make a bus stop, they have to come up with a plan,” Nicklas said. “That plan has to include how the company, not the city, how the company is going to pay for the room and board and any medical needs for up to 30 days. I think that will discourage a lot of the people who are, not the passengers but the companies, that might be thinking about dropping people unexpectedly in the city of DeKalb. We’re going to seize the buses. We’ll put them in a compound. It’s protected and secure until such time as the company pays us for our costs. We’re not going to release the buses.”

The city’s proposed ordinance states that police officers may seize and impound commercial vehicles, in accordance to municipal code. It also stipulates that violators may be subject to a $1,000 fine for each passenger arriving on an offending commercial motor vehicle.

City officials said they believe the ordinance would not deter those seeking asylum from being met with respect.

“It is very important to note that persons from any point of origin disembarking from public transportation or privately chartered services in DeKalb should have, and will have, the opportunity to get to where they intend to go safely and without harassment,” city wrote. “If DeKalb Police officers are called to assist, they will provide the same kind of professional service they would normally offer persons in need of assistance.”

Nicklas said the special meeting was called as a precaution by the city to address the potential for migrants should they arrive in town needing transportation. He said he’s not aware of any large groups of asylum seekers arriving in DeKalb as of Tuesday.

“They haven’t come in an interstate bus,” Nicklas said. “We haven’t received any such buses. If people have arrived in our community, it’s in ones and twos and we have not seen [them.] We’re not aware officially of persons who are recently coming along the Texas border arriving in DeKalb.”