By Stephen Nelson
At its Tuesday, January 2, meeting, following in the footsteps of suburbs closer to Chicago, the Kankakee City Council passed an ordinance putting requirements on the owners of buses used to bring migrants from the border areas of Texas.
The ordinance requires drivers to notify Kankakee County law enforcement, in advance, of any plan to stop here. The ordinance also puts in place specific procedures for making sure a busload doesn’t get stranded here, and all those aboard will make it to areas where they can be processed in the City of Chicago.
In December, there was an incident where a busload of 40-to-50 migrants were dropped off without any warning at a convenience store parking lot south Kankakee, near I-57. Mayor Chris Curtis said it is the intention of the ordinance to insure that doesn’t happen again.
“We can’t handle large groups of people like that at one time, maybe two-to-four individuals at a time,” Curtis said, adding that there are currently 100 migrants officially living in Kankakee right now.
Curtis said the current situation, with more arrivals anticipated, means the city is scrambling to find a facility suitable for providing shelter for new arrivals. He added there is a plan in place right now, but some sort of a more permanent alternative needs to be found by January 9.
The City also welcomed four new police officers at the meeting: Officers Autumn Schmidt, Samantha Fabro, Michael Keane, Tristan Gesler. All four are recent graduates of the police academy training institute.