With migrants hitting the suburbs, Wheeling restricts bus transports
Wheeling has become the latest town in the Northwest suburbs to tighten rules for bus service as a way to stop unscheduled deliveries of migrants being sent from Texas.
The village board on Monday approved a plan that requires privately chartered bus operators delivering at least 10 passengers one way to Wheeling to first get village permits and provide information about company owners, drivers and passengers.
Violators will be fined $750 per passenger, and buses could be impounded.
The ordinance doesn’t target or punish the passengers for seeking asylum in the U.S., Village Manager Jon Sfondilis stressed before the vote.
“The ordinance does not address immigration status in any manner,” Sfondilis said. “Rather, this regulation is meant to anticipate a crisis and create parameters that mitigate the need for emergency response in order to protect all involved.”
As part of the new permit process, an applicant must provide a plan that details how passengers will be cared for, housed and fed after arriving in Wheeling.
If approved, permits only will be good for specified days, times and locations. Stops will be limited to between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays, not including holidays.
That’s to prevent a bus from unloading passengers at night after Metra trains cease stopping in Wheeling or on weekends when trains don’t stop in Wheeling at all, officials said.
Dropping off bus passengers on a frigid night like Monday when the village’s train station is closed until morning could be dangerous, village attorney James Ferolo noted.
Sfondilis said he expects the migrant busing situation will evolve in the months ahead and that village staffers will propose changes to the rules as needed.
Before the 6-0 vote, Trustee Jim Ruffatto criticized the federal government for not doing enough to help the migrants in Texas. What’s happening there “is inexcusable,” Ruffato said.
Wheeling joins Mundelein, Deer Park, Buffalo Grove, South Barrington, Palatine and Rosemont among the suburbs that have banned unscheduled bus drops in recent weeks.
The prohibitions were prompted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s orchestration of bus and plane transports to the Chicago region and elsewhere. No migrant transports have stopped in Wheeling yet.
The Des Plaines City Council and the Arlington Heights village board will consider similar rules Tuesday night. The Lake Barrington village board will take up the issue Wednesday night.
Wheeling busing ordinance.pdf