(PatriotWise.com) — A former Illinois police chief is raising the alarm about criminal gangs exploiting the migrant crisis in Chicago to recruit migrants to commit crimes, Fox News reported.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, former Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel warned that migrant crime was about to “boil over.” He said some migrants have gotten arrested multiple times only to be released to commit further crimes.
Describing the recidivism as a “revolving door,” Weitzel suggested local police have grown discouraged and wonder, “Why bother even making the arrest?”
An estimated 35,000 migrants have been bussed to Chicago from the southern border since August 2022.
Weitzel, who served as Riverside police chief until 2021, told Fox that even before the flood of migrants arrived, Chicago was already dealing with a crime wave that had spread to surrounding suburbs.
He said criminal gangs from the city were already expanding operations into the suburbs, committing robberies and burglaries in suburban homes and businesses before returning to the city.
With the arrival of migrants, criminal gangs appear to have expanded as migrants join gangs and other criminal operations whose members show them the ropes on where and how to commit crimes.
He explained that a migrant just off the bus from Texas would have no way of knowing without help that there is a “very large, high-end shopping mall” in suburban Oak Brook or North Riverside without the assistance of criminal gangs.
Since October, 47 migrants have been arrested in Oak Brook for a string of retail thefts and burglaries, with many targeting the Macy’s store in the mall.
In December, the Oak Brook Police Department began cracking down on shoplifting at the mall as part of a statewide task force on retail crime.
Weitzel told Fox that when the police catch migrants committing crimes, in most cases, the migrants either fight with the officers or try to flee. He said suburban police departments lack the manpower to deal with the increase in crime due to arriving migrants.
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