Chicago buckles under weight of migrant crisis after boy, 5, dies and four more ... trends now
A five-year-old boy died inside an overcrowded Chicago shelter alongside 2,300 immigrants after staff allegedly refused to call an ambulance.
Jean Carlos Martinez, 5, was pronounced dead on arrival in hospital on Sunday after days of being sick at the Pilsen shelter south of downtown Chicago.
Four other children and a teenager were later taken to hospital from the same shelter, suffering from fevers and other ailments.
Chicago is struggling to care for 26,000 immigrants sent from Texas and other borders states on buses over the past year after crossing the border.
Jean Carlos Martinez, 5, was pronounced dead on arrival in hospital on Sunday after days of being sick at the Pilsen shelter south of downtown Chicago
The city has spent $138 million and counting on the crisis that will only get worse as temperatures drop as winter goes on.
Jean was sick with a fever and a pain in his left leg for two or three days before he died and began vomiting on Sunday morning.
His lips turned blue his family claimed to police that staff said that was 'probably because of the cold' and refused to call an ambulance.
While his father was pleading for an ambulance, Jean had a seizure and shelter staff gave him CPR, according to a police report seen by the Chicago Tribune.
He was rushed to Comer Children's Hospital about 3pm and pronounced dead at 3.47pm. His family were not allowed to ride with him and were instead patted down and driven in a police car.
Jean was bleeding from his mouth and nose with a 100F fever and suffered from diarrhea for days before his death.
The Pilsen shelter was the subject of numerous complaints about poor sanitation and overcrowding risking the lives of immigrants inside.
Videos from inside showed coughing and crying children, some so cold they were wearing snow jackets, and water leaking from the ceiling onto the cots below.
Video shot by a passerby showed rubbish piled up outside the shelter. The converted factory was the subject of numerous complaints about unsanitary conditions
The shelter is run by Favorite Healthcare Staffing, a Kansas-based contractor, that the city paid $100 million to operate migrant shelters since September 2022.
Jean's death is being investigated and an autopsy by Cook County medical examiner on Monday was inconclusive, pending further investigation.
The Chicago Fire Department said a three-year-old boy was taken to hospital vomiting, a seven year-old girl with an ear infection, and one-year-old, a four-year-old, and 18-year-old with other medical complaints.
A 47-year-old woman was also taken to a hospital with chest pain on Tuesday morning.
Chicago and other northern American cities have struggled to find housing for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers, many of whom have been bused from Texas throughout the last year.
Earlier this month, hundreds of asylum-seekers still awaited placement at airports and police stations in Chicago, some of them still camped on sidewalks outside precinct buildings.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said the blame for Jean's death lay squarely with southern governors for busing in thousands of immigrants to the 'sanctuary city'.
'They're just dropping off people anywhere. Do you understand how raggedy and how evil that is... and then you want to hold us accountable for something that's happening down at the border? It's sickening?' he said.
Videos from inside the Pilsen shelter (pictured) showed coughing and crying children, some so cold they were wearing snow jackets, and water leaking from the ceiling onto the cots below
