Alderman Reilly has learned Mayor Johnson is considering converting the Hotel Chicago Downtown into a migrant hotel at 333 North Dearborn Street in the Marina City Complex. 

Alderman Reilly is vehemently opposed to converting this property into a migrant hotel and believes this decision will do irreparable harm to the River North community.

The Marina City location has the potential to house over 1,000 migrants. As it stands, the portion of State Street proximate to the Hotel Chicago has remained on the Chicago Police Department’s “Drug & Gang Hotspot List” for years.  The Hotel is steps from an already problematic CTA Red Line stop; just blocks away from the temporary Bally’s Casino; and is surrounded by residential buildings, hotels, and other tourism destinations. 

Alderman Reilly thinks converting the Hotel Chicago into a migrant hotel defies logic.

Aldermen Reilly and Hopkins have called upon the Mayor to terminate the migrant housing contract at the Inn of Chicago due to the abhorrent conditions and criminal activity observed there on a daily basis, while “Calls for Service” to 9-1-1 have skyrocketed. The Inn of Chicago experiment has been an abject failure and the contract should be ended.

Alderman Reilly believes Mayor  Johnson is abusing the authority of his office; is entering into illegal contracts without appropriate legislative approvals by the Chicago City Council; and is willfully violating the law by doing so. Last week, a lawsuit was filed, challenging the Mayor’s authority to unilaterally select properties to serve as migrant facilities.

If you stand with Alderman Reilly in opposition to 333 North Dearborn being converted into a migrant facility for over a thousands migrants, please email the following members of the Johnson Administration, with a cc to our office ([email protected]):

• Mayor Johnson ([email protected], (312-744-3300) 
• Deputy Mayor of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Beatriz Ponce de Leon ([email protected], 312-744-5501) 
• First Deputy Chief of Staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas

(cristina.pacione-[email protected], 312-744-6280)