Criminal enterprises in the Chicago area are taking advantage of the migrant crisis, recruiting illegal immigrants to commit crimes with minimal legal consequences.
The influx of migrants has led to a surge in criminal activities, including theft and other offenses in suburban areas.
The situation has put a strain on law enforcement, with migrants being targeted and directed by criminal organizations to carry out crimes.
“The frustration with this migrant crime is really, I think, going to boil over,” retired Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel said.
“You can pull up any article and see that some of these migrants are being arrested three and four and five times, over and over again, and released to commit more crime. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s a revolving door. And the police officers are saying, ‘Just forget it. Why bother? Why bother even making the arrest?’”
The criminal activities extend beyond retail theft to include human trafficking, prostitution, and drug running.
“Individuals from the city, gang members, and even gang enterprises, would send individuals out to the suburbs to commit crimes at the suburban malls or residential areas for burglaries. And they would always flee back east to Chicago. That was a pattern that happened every single week,” Weitzel noted of crime prior to the migrant crisis.
“Because would a migrant know where Oak Brook, Illinois, is, which has a very large, high-end shopping mall? Or Lombard, Illinois, or North Riverside, Illinois, which are all communities that have malls. They have no idea those communities even exist. They would have no idea how to get there, where they’re located from the city of Chicago transportation. And these criminal enterprises are providing that for these migrants,” he said.
“I believe that six felony arrests in one day illustrates that migrant criminal activity is a real problem,” Oak Brook Police Chief Brian Strockis said. “The amount of these types of arrests that we have had in the last couple of months is significant and would be taxing for any police department. We are well-prepared to continue our enforcement efforts and I can assure you that there are easier places to commit these crimes than Oak Brook or DuPage County.”
“[Criminals are] giving them transportation, directing them to the buses and trains that go out to the suburbs. They’re telling them where these high-end retail stores are in the mall, such as Macy’s or other types of retail businesses that they don’t even know exist,” Weitzel said.
“That would be like me … being dropped off in the middle of a city in Ecuador. And I wouldn’t know where the grocery stores are, the schools are, a police station. I would know nothing. The same is happening in the city of Chicago,” he said.
“We have seen arrests where the recovered stolen property was in excess of 10,000 dollars. That would demonstrate that these migrants are not stealing just for themselves because they crossed the border with limited clothing. That’s a good indicator that they are part of a larger criminal network. Additionally, we have had many arrests of migrant offenders that had recent arrests for the same types of crimes in the Chicagoland area,” Strockis said.
“Clearly, these offenders are not committing one-off crime, but we will continue to enforce the law in a proactive manner in Oak Brook.”
“So, what’s happening now is that these individuals arrested by the Cook County Sheriff’s police are an organization that’s producing these identifications. All of them fictitious state IDs, driver’s license, Social Security cards. They’re either selling them to the migrants or they’re telling them where to go [to] commit the crimes in the suburbs. And then when they sell those proceeds, they give a certain amount of that cash they get to the organization that has produced the fake IDs for them,” Weitzel said.
“These are organizations, mainly in Mexico, that are getting these individuals over the border, and then they have people in place in Chicago and other major cities [who are a part of the] criminal organization that then set out on having some of these individuals, not all migrants, but a majority … out to commit crime,” he said.
“Believe me, these are calculated organizations that know what they’re doing. It’s not some fly-by-night operations. And there are documented gang members from Mexico and other nations because ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the Department of Justice and even local police, Cook County Sheriff’s police, are constantly putting out intelligence bulletins to police departments through their networks,” he said.
The elimination of cash bail in Illinois has added to the challenges faced by police departments.
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