Mayor Brandon Johnson was met with strong opposition from Chicago residents during a Wednesday City Council meeting over his $70 million budget request to support the city’s immigrants and asylum-seekers. One resident has even launched a recall effort.
As a strong supporter of Chicago’s sanctuary city status, Johnson petitioned the city’s aldermen to allocate more funding for immigrants. So far, the city has spent $300 million on housing, food, and healthcare for newcomers. The alderman deferred Johnson’s request and is expected to let the measure stall. However, if approved, the money will be drawn from the city’s assigned fund balance from 2022, according to budget director Annette Guzman.
The city is projected to run a deficit of $1.5 billion this year and $1.9 billion for 2025. Johnson has blamed the city’s financial crisis on the federal government’s failure to step in and provide aid to the asylum-seekers.
During the meeting, voters attacked Johnson for not putting the citizens of Chicago first.
“We need that money in my neighborhood; we need that money on my block,” a woman wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cowboy hat said. “So I’m asking y’all to use our tax money for our people. We need it.”
Another woman declared that if the alderman voted in favor of the money, they should be concerned about their jobs.
“Vote for the money for these immigrants today and we coming for those seats, you can believe that,” she said. “You better be worrying about your job, you better be worrying about your longevity because we gonna vote and we gonna get you out ’cause you ain’t doing right by us. That’s what time it is.”
Disapproval for Johnson is so high that resident Dan Boland is organizing a petition that would allow citizens to vote on a recall for the mayor. Currently, the only recall that is allowed is for the governor.
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“We’ve never had this opportunity to recall before, and it’s very apparent based on the mayor’s abilities right now, or lack of accountability, that this needs to be addressed,” Boland told Fox News.
For the initiative to appear on the November ballot, Boland must collect 56,464 signatures by Aug. 5. If he does, he can then put on the November ballot the question of whether residents should be able to recall a mayor. If that is approved, he would need to launch another petition, this time gathering 122,503 signatures. If successful, Boland could then put the question of recalling Johnson on the ballot of the next scheduled election in March 2026.
