Joliet: Buses With Asylum Seekers Now Face Fines, Impoundment

JOLIET, IL ? Bus companies bringing asylum seekers from south of the U.S. border into Illinois to begin a new chapter of their lives just learned on Tuesday night that the Joliet City Council does not want them to be making drops in the City of Champions.

Following a lengthy discussion, the Joliet City Council voted unanimously to pass an ordinance amendment regulating unscheduled inter-city bus dropoffs and impound any buses involved in that practice. Joliet's elected officials passed the measure to prevent future buses rolling through the Land of Lincoln from choosing to drop off hundreds of asylum seekers here in Joliet.

Under the new restrictions adopted by Joliet, the bus company can be fined up to $750 per person on the bus for failing to seek an application with Joliet Police Chief Bill Evans furnishing all the names, plus a criminal background check for everyone riding on the bus prior to receiving approval from the police chief to arrive in Joliet as the destination.

Joliet Corporation Counsel Chris Regis addressed the City Council before the vote was taken.

"So, a little bit before Christmas, I was approached by the city manager and we talked about current events and the concern about unscheduled bus dropoffs in the city, especially during the cold months," Regis told everyone. "These unscheduled bus dropoffs are problematic and they cause concern with us because they do put on an undue burden on our city resources and a burden on our community at large and they are not humane to the people who are on the buses, once again, especially during the cold weather months."

Regis reminded everyone that the bus drop-offs being regulated are ones considered intercity and unscheduled.

"So they are unscheduled in that they are not subject to a regular schedule that maybe somebody can buy a ticket for or maybe look on the Internet and see that this bus company is regularly coming and going," Regis said. "These are one time dropoffs that companies are engaged in. They're unscheduled. They're also intercity, they originate outside the city of Joliet and again, they are dropping off, there is no round service component to these trips and all three of those elements put together do create a problem for everyone. And I do mean everyone."

Regis also said "please keep in mind that this does not apply to school field trips. This does not apply to school sponsored athletic tournaments. This does not apply to professional sports teams coming to our town to play our professional team. Does not apply to roundtrip services to local tourist facilities, either. The key element is roundtrip."

Once Regis finished talking, Mayor Terry D'Arcy spoke up.

"We have been monitoring this for a long time. And the city manager and myself have spent several hours on the phone in situations where some of these other local communities have called us, and we have been working with the Will County Emergency Management Team. There is a place in Chicago, 800 Des Plaines, it's called the landing zone. That's where these asylum seekers will be processed, only there," D'Arcy explained.

"We don't have the mechanism to do that, nor do we want to accept that. So, we have been able to, through our emergency management team here and with the county, they're open from 8 to 5:30, they've actually opened up for us, so that those buses would pass through those communities that they stopped at with the people and take them up there. So, we've been able to keep that from happening in our community and some of our local communities, and we feel that this ordinance will keep us from having to deal with this. And all our police officers in every zone in the city are well aware of how to handle a situation if a bus were to come into the city and even think about dropping off."

D'Arcy also urged everyone watching Tuesday night's meeting to call 911 if they see a bus company driving around Joliet looking to unload asylum seekers.

"Our dispatchers are well aware of how to handle the situation," D'Arcy emphasized. "It would immediately go out to our first responders, and they would be at that location as soon as possible. So we have worked on a plan, we have engaged the plan ... so we're well aware of it and have spent a good amount of time in putting something together to keep our community our community."

Before the vote, City Councilman Joe Clement praised D'Arcy for bringing the ordinance forward. Then Clement told everyone how Joliet's Council still needs to take it one step further by passing an ordinance letting everyone know that Joliet is not a sanctuary city.

"This is step one, and I commend you for doing this and our city manager and I don't mean to put you on the spot, but you came from Chicago, was there discussion? Clement asked. "Maybe you were part of this discussion, or you knew Chicago's plan. I'm not really sure. What is their plan? Do you know? Are they just going to continue to send these buses everywhere?

"I'm not saying that you were a part of this at all. I'm just saying, you came from Chicago. Is there any insight you can give?"

Beth Beatty just took over in mid-December as Joliet's new permanent city manager after working as the deputy mayor of Chicago. Beatty worked for four different mayoral administrations in Chicago over the past 20 years or so and she also has a law degree.

"I just know that from my experience, starting in ... August of 2022, we received the first bus ... and we had resources available, but since, there's been like 10 buses a day that are being dropped off," Beatty remarked. "They are spending roughly $40 million a month trying to manage the situation. And Chicago is a welcoming city and everyone is doing their best there, to welcome the asylum seekers and see what they can do, but as you said, it's a federal issue and needs federal attention and the city has been begging the state for money, which the General Assembly and the governor have worked on some.

"But we just didn't want to see the same situation unfold here because we don't have resources."

Beatty said she does not believe Chicago is sending buses with asylum seekers to Joliet right now. "I haven't heard that they're sending buses to Joliet, no one's called me about that, no one's engaged me. But I just don't have first-hand knowledge of that. I know that buses are arriving ... they've been coming from the South and stopping because Chicago had their own ordinance in place now, and started impounding buses."

Tuesday's vote was 7-0. However, two elected Councilmen, Cesar Cardenas and Cesar Guerrero, were no-shows for the meeting.