“I’d rather die of cold than go to a shelter”: Venezuelan migrants in Chicago decide to sleep in tents

A group of migrants is in a tent in a park next to the 12th district police station in Pilsen. Asylum seekers say they’d rather brave Chicago’s cold than go to a shelter, one of which the city has set up to accommodate the arrival of thousands of immigrants in recent months.

by Univision

But immigrants don’t seem too sure about staying in shelters, as they’re convinced they can catch viruses like the flu because of how saturated these spaces are.

“It’s worse in the shelter, there’s flu, tuberculosis, everything together. 1,200 people together, imagine!” says Dennis Diaz, a Venezuelan immigrant.

Alexis Sanchez, another Venezuelan migrant, told Univision Chicago: “I choose to stay in my tent, in my heart. “I’d rather live in my tent than those shelters.”

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Among recent immigrants to Chicago, they also admit that they have not been able to get used to the rules of the food or the shelters. Anonymously, one of them said it was for that reason and now he is sleeping in tents.

Officials are facing displacement in tents

Univision Chicago News requested a statement from Andre Vasquez, chairman of the city council’s refugee committee, and he responded in a text message that he did not know what the city’s plans were for the migrants in the tents.

The editorial team also requested feedback from the City of Chicago and the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, who have yet to respond to a request to find a solution to this crisis in Chicago.

Read more at Univision