Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson tore into a reporter for asking the city leader when he plans to reschedule a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I have children who attend schools who have soccer games, y’all,” Johnson told reporters after being asked about his border plans. “You know, you all are asking me as if I’m not a parent in this city. I get it, I’m mayor, but you’re asking me to give you a date.”
The question comes as Johnson met Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday to discuss the migrant crisis in the city, with more than 35,000 migrants arriving in Chicago in the last year and a half, according to numbers reported by local ABC television station WLS.
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Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson City. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Pritzker has offered state money to the city to help manage the crisis and house migrants, according to the report, though that money has not yet been allocated to a specific project.
In comments to reporters Tuesday, Johnson said that it is going to take all levels of government to come together to solve the ongoing border crisis.
“This mission is going to take all of us,” the mayor told reporters. “There is a strong commitment still for the state, county and city to continue to challenge the federal government to respond to this international crisis”
Recently arrived migrants in a makeshift shelter operated by the city of Chicago at OHare International Airport on Aug. 31, 2023. ((Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images))
Johnson, who took over as mayor in May of last year, has previously made promises to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border himself to get a firsthand view of the crisis. But a planned October trip was canceled by the mayor, who reasoned his time was better off spent dealing with the immediate needs in Chicago and instead sending a delegation of city officials in his place.
But pressed this week about whether he had a specific plan in mind to reschedule his visit, Johnson reminded reporters of his busy schedule in Chicago.
Migrants are led from one bus to another bus after arriving from Texas at Union Station on Sept. 9, 2022, in Chicago. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Do you understand that you have not had a mayor like me? I get that. I have a wife, I have children, they have schedules. And plus, we still have public safety that we have to address, we still have the unhoused that we have to address, I still have a budget that I have to address,” Johnson said. “And I’m doing all of that with a Black wife, raising three Black children on the west side of the city of Chicago. I am going to the border as soon as possible.”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
