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By Matthew Impelli
Life & Trends Reporter
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Illinois House of Representatives candidate Andre Smith has demanded a recall of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Friday amid an influx of migrants in the city.
"Our mayor has no plan now; he's having panic attacks. We need to actually recall the mayor," Smith, a Democrat and the founder of the Chicago Against Violence organization, said on Fox & Friends. "It's a disaster, and it all falls on the mayor, Brandon Johnson; that's why I'm pushing strongly that we repeal the mayor."
Smith, who is running for election in the Illinois House of Representatives for District 5, said that while he is a Democrat, he believes in choice but also supports "shutting and closing the border."
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"When I'm out talking to people, residents and voters, they're frustrated, they're angry, they feel left out and forgotten about. They feel that the mayor, Brandon Johnson, took their votes and their voice and did not allow them to vote whether they wanted a sanctuary city or not," Smith said.
Newsweek reached out to the Chicago Mayor's press office via email for comment.
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Over the past several months, Chicago has seen an influx of migrants after some Republican Governors, like Greg Abbott of Texas, sent them to the city. Abbott has been vocal in his criticism of President Joe Biden's handling of the U.S.-Mexico border and recently defied a ruling from the Supreme Court to remove razor wire placed along the border.
According to a dashboard from the city of Chicago, since August 2022, the city has seen approximately 34,000 migrants arriving from the southern border.
"In response to this fluid and dynamic situation, the City of Chicago has stood up 27 temporary congregate shelters across the city at a current rate of 1 shelter every 6 days, and provide case management for new arrivals to embark on a path of resettlement and self-sufficiency," the dashboard states.
"Due to the amount of time it takes to retrofit buildings into congregate shelters, the City has relied on police station districts and airports to serve as emergency staging areas while people await shelter placement."
Johnson has criticized Abbott, saying that he continues to "sow seeds of chaos" by sending migrants to the city.
"The governor of Texas, Governor Abbott, is determined to continue to sow seeds of chaos. And last night, and several nights before, a number of buses continued to arrive in the city of Chicago, throughout the country without any coordination," the Chicago mayor said on NBC's Meet the Press in December. "This is certainly a matter of, not just of our national security, but it's the type of chaos that this governor is committed to administering."
This is not the first time Smith has spoken up about the situation in Chicago, telling Fox News on Wednesday that he was arrested after attempting to stop a bus filled with migrants arriving in the city.
"In the community that I was born in, which is called Woodlawn in the city of Chicago, I did get arrested. I heard that they were bringing the migrants in on a CTA bus that was paid for by taxpayers' money," Smith said. "So I stood in front of the bus, and I refused for the illegal migrants to get into the Wadsworth School."
Update 1/26/24, 9:21 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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