Free Republic

In 1985, Harold Washington issued an executive order that relaxed federal immigration laws under then-President Ronald Reagan, whose administration “aggressively used [the] detention of Central Americans as a device to deter migration from that region, where violent civil wars had caused tens of thousands to flee,” according to University of California Davis law professor Kevin Davis. Since Aug. 31, 2022, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has bussed or flown to Chicago nearly 40,000 individuals seeking asylum in an effort to use the welcoming aspects of Washington’s executive order as a political cudgel. On April 14, Mayor Johnson called out the...

Dozens of plastic bags containing “repulsive” antisemitic flyers and possible “rat poison” were found scattered around a Chicago neighborhood Monday — in the third disturbing incident this year. A resident came across the hateful leaflets in the Lincoln Park area Monday morning and reached out to their local official. “This is not the first time our ward has seen incidents like this. To the people who are spreading these flyers, I have a clear message: you are committing acts of hate,” Timmy Knudsen, alderman for Chicago’s 43rd Ward, said in a statement.

Top staffers for Democrat John Fetterman are leaving his office for more progressive jobs as the Pennsylvania senator moves more to the center on key issues. The everyman Democrat, who loves Carhartt hoodies and dawning a disheveled goatee, has staunchly supported Israel's war on Hamas and denounced calls for a ceasefire. He's also expressed support for increased U.S. border security, another position that puts him at odds with his party. The freshman Democrat was elected after securing support from some of the most liberal members of Congress in 2022. The towering 6 foot 8 inch senator, previously supported Democrat Socialist...

I have written about the disastrous policies of Mayor Brandon Johnson for Chicago. As a native son, it is hard to watch this wonderful city undermined by Johnson and radical allies in the city council. Some initiatives like reparations and state-funded grocery stores will cost money but will not impose nearly the costs of Johnson’s dismal record on crime and taxes. However, this week saw a particularly confusing moment when, after calling the anti-crime program ShotSpotter “racist,” Johnson asked the company to extend its contract beyond the upcoming Democratic National Convention. So Johnson will put an end to this supposedly...

Mayor Brandon Johnson and his administration received complaints about unsanitary and unsafe conditions at a Pilsen migrant shelter as early as late October, more than a month before the death of a 5-year-old boy focused attention on the state of the facility, emails recently obtained by WTTW News show. On Dec. 17, 2023, Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero died at Comer Children’s Hospital after falling ill at a migrant shelter in the 2200 block of South Halsted Avenue. Then on Dec. 19, several other individuals were taken to the hospital from that shelter with respiratory illnesses, according to the mayor’s office....

Monday marked the five-year anniversary of Joe Biden’s online condemnation of a “hate crime” that never happened. On Jan. 29, 2019, “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, who is black and gay, made national headlines with claims a pair of white supremacist Trump supporters violently attacked him. The actor said his assailants screamed, “This is MAGA country!” in the apparently far-right city of Chicago. “I will never be the man this did not happen to,” Smollett told ABC News in an interview with Robin Roberts two weeks later. By December 2021, Smollett was convicted on five out of six charges over staging...

Chicago’s self-professed “progressive” Mayor Brandon Johnson is demanding a “ceasefire” in the action between Israel and Hamas terrorists, even as his city remains awash in gang violence. Johnson spoke out on Wednesday as the city council debated a formal resolution condemning Israel for its efforts to root out and destroy the terror group responsible for the raid into Southern Israel that ended in more than a thousand dead Israeli civilians and more than 230 kidnapped citizens. More than 130 still remain in captivity at the hands of Hamas and several other terror groups. During his comments on Jan. 24, Johnson...

A Chicago Democrat is calling for the city's sanctuary status to be removed as the migrant crisis continues to squeeze community resources. Government employee Cata Truss told "Fox News @ Night" Democrat voters like her are growing increasingly frustrated with the party's handling of the issue. "There is no moneys to take care of the migrants, nor is there moneys to take care of the people that are there. And so we have a mess on our hands," Truss said Wednesday. Truss argued Windy City residents are upset over low income communities and schools being "divested in" while funds are...

Two Chicago journalists reported that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has become so "stressed out" that he was hospitalized for panic attacks. John Kass and Anita Padilla broke the news on WGN-AM's Chicago Way Podcast on January 16, saying that Johnson needed medical help due to increasing stress. They were talking about the illegal immigrant problem on air when Kass said "No amount of anti-depressants can cure him of this problem." "I know, it's so true," Padilla said. "And you know, I actually, you brought it up, I was gonna bring it up." "The panic attacks?" Kass asked. "The mayor's panic...

It’s easier to complain about a problem rather than work towards an active solution. Imagine how much crime would have been prevented if President Joe Biden just knuckled down and worked with Congress on a budget plan that would give them the funds for proper mental health care and necessary gear to do their job. But nope, let’s keep pointing those fingers. It seems to be a common issue these days -- especially when it comes to the ongoing migrant crisis. In a recent interview with Fox News, Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson -- a Democrat -- took the time to...

Black Chicagoans are increasing their calls to “turn Chicago red” in the coming elections in response to the growing border crisis that has flooded their neighborhoods with illegal aliens at the behest of “welcoming” Mayor Brandon Johnson. Windy City residents Cata Truss and Mark Carter appeared on Fox & Friends First on Jan. 5 with the vow to vote for Republicans in 2024 after the massive failure of Mayor Johnson and the Chicago City Council to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants.

At least 18 people were shot, two of them fatally, during the first two days of the Christmas weekend in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s (D) Chicago. The weekend’s first shooting fatality occurred at 12:44 p.m. Saturday when a 28-year-old man was shot “in the 2400 block of West 55th Street” while on the sidewalk, CBS News reported. The shots were fired by someone inside a vehicle. The 28-year-old was struck in the head and transported to a hospital, where he died.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Board of Education are following the lead of other major cities and eliminating gifted school programs in the name of achieving greater racial and social “equity.” Eleven “high-achieving selective-enrollment schools” will be eliminated, according to Chicago Board of Education CEO Pedro Martinez, to reduce “stratification and inequity.” As we have previously discussed, major cities with failing public education programs are erasing performance gaps in their schools by decapitating the top performers rather than elevating the performance overall. Other schools have also eliminated or lowered proficiency standards to achieve higher passage rates.According to the...

I know that the main reason communist countries do not hold elections is because those in power realize they would be voted out of power by the people who don’t like to be starved, tortured, oppressed, shot, or have their guts cut out of their insides. Communists love power and, as long as they can control the military, they can keep it. Elections are for “useful idiots.” And there is actually some truth to the final sentence in the above paragraph—at least in the eyes of communists. And, as much as I hate to agree with them about anything... Chicago...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson whined Tuesday about “right-wing extremism” and blamed his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, for the many troubles afflicting the Windy City. Johnson insisted that he “inherited” the city’s ongoing migrant crisis and accused conservatives of unfairly caricaturing Chicago as a crime-ridden metropolis. “It is abysmal and it’s an affront for everything that is good about this country, for the extremism in this country to use people as political tools to settle political scores for something that happened 400 years ago,” Johnson said during a riff on public safety. “They’re still mad that a black man is free in...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson lashes out and blames "right wing extremists" for Chicago's problems and says right wingers won’t accept the results of the civil war

Chicago's Mayor Brandon Johnson claims he 'inherited' the city's spiraling migrant crisis and lashed out at Lori Lightfoot's former administration. Johnson criticized Lightfoot's administration at a press conference on Tuesday held to announce the Unity initiative, an interfaith partnership aimed at bringing sleeping migrants out of police stations and into shelters. Johnson told reporters that 'the international crisis that I inherited six months ago, I've made it very clear we are going to move people out of police districts, women and children who are living on floors and sleeping outside that we're going to create spaces that provide more dignity.'...

Chicago residents don’t like the policies they voted for when they voted Brandon Johnson into office. He has lost 72% of the residents. The Illinois Policy Institute puts Johnson on the same level as bottom crawlers former Mayors Lori Lightfoot and Rahm Emmanuel, who polled at 27%. He’s at 28% and going for the gold.. The poll found that his approval was lowest on crime and safety, with two of three voters polled disapproving. Voters disapproved of his handling of housing, homelessness, and migrants. Under bad leadership, crime has gone up in Chicago. Chicago crime declined from 2018 to 2020,...

Democrat Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson delivered a bizarre rant shoehorning slavery and racism against black people into the discussion of the criticism he is facing from black Chicagoans for opening a growing list of shelters for illegals in their neighborhoods and for redirecting funds and services from black communities to serve the border crossers there. From the podium on Friday, Johnson attempted to misdirect criticism he faces from black Chicagoans for his efforts to house, feed, clothe, and give medical care for free to thousands of illegal aliens by trying to characterize critics as racists who don’t “love” black people.

It would be naïve to think that a progressive Chicago mayor could actually reduce the city’s crime numbers during his first 100 days in office, but Brandon Johnson did have a real opportunity to flip the trajectory. Chicago’s crime had already hit its post-George Floyd, post-covid highs in 2022 (see appendix) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot had made a major mess of policing and criminal justice. Johnson had a perfect chance to lead, and maybe even bring the crime numbers down.Unfortunately, Johnson has refused to even try to tamp down on crime during his first 100 days. If anything, he’s doubled...