Behind the wheel without a license: Migrants buying cars to make a life in Chicago
Behind a West Loop migrant shelter, dozens of cars sit without license plates.
Several of their owners stand nearby, acknowledging they lack licenses to drive them.
But they increasingly have been driving, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis of police data that suggests sharp rises in arrests among migrants for breaking traffic laws. The analysis found many are now being detained in Chicago each week for driving- or vehicle-related infractions, roughly at five times the rate from last summer.
“Start where you are. Do what you can. Use what you have,” said Jose Fernandez, 30, from Trujillo, Venezuela.
It’s difficult to know for sure how many migrants are charged or ticketed because police don’t keep precise data on when they arrest asylum-seekers. But what is often available in arrest data — the arrestees’ country of birth — suggests that driving- and vehicle-related offenses have become the primary reason migrants end up being detained by officers.
The Tribune focused on arrestees born in Venezuela because census figures show few native Venezuelans lived in Chicago before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing migrants north 18 months ago, and city officials say that Venezuelans make up the majority of the more than 37,000 migrants who’ve arrived since.
The Tribune analysis
