Former police chief: Chicago illegal immigrant crime 'going to boil over'

CHICAGO, IL — The former police chief of Riverside, Illinois, Tom Weitzel, revealed in an interview Monday that the criminal gangs and organizations of Chicago are reaping the benefits of the illegal immigration crisis with a recruiting bonanza. The thousands of illegal immigrants flooding in, he said, are allowing them to orchestrate crimes with minimal legal consequences and a ready source of disposable manpower.

Speaking with Fox News via Zoom, Weitzel explained, "The frustration with this migrant crime is really, I think, going to boil over. You can pull up any article and see that some of these migrants are being arrested three and four and five times, over and over again, and released to commit more crime… It's not an exaggeration to say that it's a revolving door. And the police officers are saying, ‘Just forget it. Why bother? Why bother even making the arrest?’"

The demoralization described by Weitzel has reportedly grown with Chicago as the city and its metropolitan area have become plagued by endemic crimes by illegal immigrants with even outlying businesses and communities falling victim.

Weitzel, who retired in 2021 after a 37-year career policing in Riverside (a Cook County suburb of Chicago) told the outlet that immediately following the 2020 crime wave that devastated the Chicago metro, the illegal immigrant crisis exploded into the area.

Describing the scenario before the storm of illegal immigrants swept the area, he said, "Individuals from the city, gang members, and even gang enterprises, would send individuals out to the suburbs to commit crimes at the suburban malls or residential areas for burglaries. And they would always flee back east to Chicago. That was a pattern that happened every single week."

But now he observed that the recruiting pool for criminals has swollen considerably with illegal immigrants arriving and seeming to link up with pre-existing criminal organizations and gangs who proceed to induct them into the criminal community.

He added that right at the drop-off areas the illegal immigrants are "immediately targeted by these organizations to go out and commit crime." 

Weitzel added, "Because would a migrant know where Oak Brook, Illinois, is, which has a very large, high-end shopping mall? Or Lombard, Illinois, or North Riverside, Illinois, which are all communities that have malls. They have no idea those communities even exist. They would have no idea how to get there, where they're located from the city of Chicago transportation. And these criminal enterprises are providing that for these migrants."

Essentially, the criminal groups are reportedly creating an underground infrastructure, a pipeline directly from congested inner-city drop points where Biden Administration DHS busing lands them, straight to vulnerable suburban areas, where police were already stretched thin. 

As the chief observed, those Chicago suburbs have seen repeated criminal incursions by illegal immigrants bussed and flown into Chicago with two distinct incidents striking at the Oak Brook Macy's carried out by a total of six illegal immigrant assailants. Oak Brook Police Chief Brian Strockis said just following the incidents, "I believe that six felony arrests in one day illustrates that migrant criminal activity is a real problem."

Weitzel broke down the process telling Fox News that the criminals of Chicago are "giving them transportation, directing them to the buses and trains that go out to the suburbs. They're telling them where these high-end retail stores are in the mall, such as Macy's or other types of retail businesses that they don't even know exist."

"That would be like me…being dropped off in the middle of a city in Ecuador. And I wouldn’t know where the grocery stores are, the schools are, a police station. I would know nothing. The same is happening in the city of Chicago."