Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Says Illegal Immigrants Are an ‘Essential Part of Who We Are’

by Mike LaChance Sep. 16, 2026 3:00 pm



Brandon Johnson Press Conference / Screenshot

Chicago’s far left Mayor Brandon Johnson is taking a page out of Zohran Mamdani’s playbook and claiming that ilegal immigrants play in essential role in America.

Newsflash for the mayor. No. They don’t.

Johnson was making his comments in response to the Trump administration’s move to block illegal immigrants from receiving any kind of welfare.

This is something that Democrats simply can’t or won’t understand. Johnson also obscured the difference between legal and illegal immigrants, a tactic often employed by liberals on this issue.

Breitbart News reports:

Chicago’s radical Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson joined New York’s socialist mayor to sue the Trump administration to protect legal and illegal migrants and their access to U.S. welfare programs, because, in his words, illegals are an “essential part of who we are.”

Johnson joined New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration for shutting down welfare-dependent immigration to the United States through the “public charge” rule.

The Trump administration has resurrected the “public charge” rule, which makes legal immigrants less likely to secure green cards if they have used any form of welfare in the past, including subsidized healthcare services, food stamps, or public housing. But Democrats oppose the rule and claim that migrants who are not productive citizens have every right to be subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer through welfare programs…

In his message to the city, Johnson insisted that reinstating the rule “sweeps aside more than a century of settled law, as well as decades of federal guidance establishing clear limits on how public charge determinations can be made.” Johnson further alleges that the Trump administration’s rule “dramatically and unlawfully expands the government’s authority to consider an immigrant’s use of public benefits, allowing the federal government to consider virtually any means-tested or income-based public benefits while inviting officers to make decisions that are inconsistent and discriminatory.”

Johnson has just announced that he is going to seek a second term and ironically, this very issue could be a major stumbling block for him.

Black Chicagoans have been very critical of Johnson’s devotion to illegal immigrants while ignoring the needs of Americans living in the city.

He has spent billions in recent years on the comfort of illegals.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/202...mmigrants-are/