Chicago's top cop says using police stations as short-term migrant housing is burden for department

abcnews.go.com:

Chicago’s new police chief says the city’s use of police stations as temporary housing for thousands of migrants seeking asylum has been a “burden” on the nation’s second-largest police department

CHICAGO — Chicago's new police chief said the city's use of police stations as temporary housing for the growing population of migrants seeking asylum has been a “burden” on the nation's second-largest police department.

Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that among his main concerns is the toll the city's approach has taken on officers' well being because it is unfolding in their workplace.

“We were the first to open our doors to the migrants and they’re still coming. And we have not turned them away,” Snelling said. “But what we need are other people to step up in these situations because the burden has been on the police department to house people.”

Currently, over 3,000 new arrivals are sleeping at police stations with hundreds more at airports. Some stay a few days — others months — while they await longer-term placement at shelters set up throughout the city, including small hotels, a park field house and unused commercial space. More than 18,500 migrants have arrived in Chicago since Texas Gov. Greg Abbot began sending buses last year to so-called sanctuary cities, or largely Democrat-run places that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Some new arrivals stay inside police station lobbies, many sleeping close together on cardboard and sharing bathrooms. Others congregate just outside the stations, sleeping on mattresses or in tents on the sidewalks and adjacent lots. Volunteers provide food, clothes, hygiene items and medical care.

Snelling would