Chicago police are investigating allegations that a group of officers had improper sexual relations with newly arrived immigrants.
One of the officers, assigned to the Ogden District, covering Lawndale and Little Village, has been accused of impregnating a teenage girl, law enforcement sources said Thursday. Multiple other officers are also accused of engaging in sexual acts with immigrants.
As the city has struggled to accommodate an influx of new arrivals being sent from the southern U.S. border, controversy has brewed over the decision to temporarily house many of them at police stations. Despite the criticism, allegations of serious misconduct by police officers had not previously been reported.
A police spokesperson said both the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability are investigating the new allegations.
Police officials wouldn’t say whether any of the officers had been stripped of their police powers, or whether the allegations involving the girl had been referred to Cook County prosecutors. A COPA spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
About 11,000 asylum-seekers have come to Chicago since last August. Many were placed on buses or planes and transported to the city by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Chicago has grappled with finding adequate shelter for the new arrivals.
Hundreds have had to spend nights sleeping on the floors of police stations across the city. To ease the burden on the stations, the city has turned to housing immigrants at temporary locations like Wilbur Wright College on the Northwest Side.
The city’s plan to open these respite shelters have been met with protests by residents in some neighborhoods, including South Shore on the South Side, where some argue that the city should instead spend its dollars trying to help areas with a history of low economic development.
But Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration plans to open five new shelters across the city with a combined capacity of nearly 2,500, as well as a welcoming center for new arrivals at Roberto Clemente Community Academy High School, 1147 N. Western Ave.
A spokesperson for Johnson issued a statement late Thursday, saying, “The city takes these allegations, as well as the care and well-being of all residents and new arrivals, very seriously.
“We are monitoring the situation closely, but cannot comment further as this is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Bureau of Internal Affairs and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.”
Most of the asylum-seekers are from Venezuela. Others are from Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, Russia, Cuba, Angola and the Dominican Republic.
Contributing: Fran Spielman, Emmanuel Camarillo
