North Cook News

Skokie has received a group of Venezuelans who will now be attending Fairview District 72 and Niles Township High School District 219 and will be staying in the area “long-term.”

A bevy of Venezuelans from the country’s southern border comes as those illegal immigrants crossing the border uncontested in Texas are being shipped out of state.

“On Sunday night, District 72 and District 219 received word that a group of asylum seekers from Venezuela were relocated to long-term temporary housing within our shared boundaries,” Fairview District 72 Superintendent Cindy Whittaker said in an email. “The Illinois State Board of Education has informed us that the group includes 34 students of elementary and middle-school age, and we anticipate they will be enrolled at Fairview in the coming days. Over the past 48 hours, our staff has worked diligently on a plan to accommodate and support these new students and their families to the best of our ability. As we do whenever a new family moves into the Fairview community, we will make them feel welcome and safe as they acclimate to Skokie.”

“We expect the new students to begin school in the coming days. We have asked our staff to have discussions with our current students about the new children to Fairview in a developmentally appropriate and factually accurate manner. While we are cognizant of the many political viewpoints surrounding asylum seekers in our country, our focus is on the safety, well-being, and education of these students, not on the circumstances that led to them being part of our community.”

In recent weeks, buses operated by the Chicago Regional Transit authority dropped off other groups of immigrants at the La Quinta in Elk Grove.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was criticized by Elk Grove Mayor Craig Johnson for abruptly abandoning the immigrants in Elk Grove Village, allegedly without warning.

Lightfoot had earlier declared that she would welcome the busloads of immigrants arriving from Texas. Texas had also sent similar buses to New York and Washington, D.C., each of which had taken in about 8,000 people.

The outbreak of scabies among in two Nicaraguans in that group in Elk Grove was reported, fulfilling Johnson's previously stated concerns of health issues.

A Hampton Inn in Burr Ridge was where a different busload was dropped off.

Mayor of Burr Ridge Gary Grasso told WGN-TV that he was unaware of the drop until locals got in touch with him.

According to the DuPage Policy Journal, the groups are at the hotels "indefinitely."