Texas has chartered its first airplane to send migrants to sanctuary cities, with around 150 people landing unannounced in Chicago Tuesday night.
The flight, chartered by the Texas Department of Emergency Management, marked a first for Texas, which has previously used buses to send new arrivals to cities including New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Chicago.
According to local media, the plane from El Paso landed at O'Hare International Airport at around 7:15 p.m. Officials then called Chicago Police Department.
Before officers could interview them, two people identified as "handlers" reportedly got into a cab and left the airport. The migrants who were on the plane are now staying at the airport, according to local outlet WTTW.
The Chicago Police Department refused to comment on the matter, while The Messenger's request for comment from the city did not receive an immediate response.
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, citing anonymous sources reported that all the migrants who boarded the flight had signed waivers, as they do when boarding buses, to prove that they had consented to the trip.
Chicago is one of many places struggling to cope with the migrant crisis, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott had vowed to send more their way.
While there was no official announcement around the flight, in a social media post on Wednesday Abbott wrote that the state had bussed "over 82,900 migrants to sanctuary cities."
Those numbers do not come near the volume of people officials are now facing, however, and many of Abbotts followers have questioned what has happened to the thousands more not sent out of the state.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are reportedly dealing with around 10,000 new arrivals along the southwest border each day currently, with resources stretched thin.
Official crossing points have been closed off while patrols are redeployed to tackle illegal crossings encouraged by smugglers.
"Because Mayor Johnson is failing to live up to his city's “Welcoming City” ordinance by targeting migrant buses from Texas, we are expanding our operation to include flights to Chicago, like the Biden Administration has been doing across the country," Gov. Abbott's press secretary Andrew Mahaleris told The Messenger.
"Governor Abbott launched the border bus mission in April 2022 to provide support to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities as the Biden Administration leaves thousands of migrants in their towns.
"Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue taking historic action to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis.”