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Aurora has seen no new bus drop-offs of migrants since passing an ordinance regulating such buses three days before Christmas.
Aurora City Council members on Dec. 22 voted 9-1, with one present vote, to force any buses coming into the city with one-way passengers and dropping them off to apply for a permit from the city five days in advance of arrival.
The ordinance also provides for a fine of up to $1,000 to the bus companies involved and their personnel, and possible seizure and impoundment of the buses, for not following the new rules.
The ordinance proposal was prompted by the arrival of five buses during the week before Christmas at the Aurora Transportation Center. The passengers of the buses, which came from Texas, were dropped off with tickets or money for tickets on the Metra train for Chicago.
The movement of migrants from Texas, done by Gov. Greg Abbott there, has been going on for months.
In one case in Aurora, the passengers did not have money for the train, and Deputy Mayor Guillermo Trujillo, on instruction from the Emergency Management Agency of Chicago, purchased 48 tickets to Chicago for the passengers.
The ordinance passed by Aurora uses the city’s Community Service Department to regulate the buses, requiring they apply for their permit through that department. Violating the ordinance would bring a citation through the community services avenue, rather than the Aurora Police Department.
The ordinance applies to commercial vehicles that are privately chartered for one-way trips. They must be carrying more than 10 passengers. In extreme cases, the ordinance gives the Aurora police authority to tow and impound the buses.
To get a permit, an applicant must give a name, address and name of the transport company. They must provide arrival information, and give a plan for how the passengers will be received and cared for upon arrival.
Since the time the new rules were approved, Aurora has seen no new bus drop-offs, according to city officials.
However, there have been plenty of them throughout the Chicago suburbs, all at places with train stations along the suburban lines. That has meant plenty of similar legislative activity in those suburbs similar to what Aurora did.
Aurora’s ordinance was similar to one passed in Chicago, which is what prompted the buses from Texas to begin dropping migrants off in the suburbs.
Towns like Elburn, Chicago Ridge and McHenry passed ordinances during the past several weeks, and this week similar ordinances passed in Buffalo Grove, Hinsdale, Kankakee, Joliet, Woodstock and North Chicago.