Chicago, That Toddler Traffickin’ Town

Mayor Brandon Johnson refuses to cooperate on immigration, coddles illegal alien gangs engaged in child trafficking, and plays the race card in repugnant comments.

Anti-police activist turned Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has continued his stance of ignoring federal immigration law and deliberately defying President Donald Trump's border enforcement. A former paid organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson has allowed South American illegal aliens to run gang operations on the streets of his city while they engage in human trafficking, including children. Instead of cracking down on the flow of overseas street drugs throughout his city, Johnson has brazenly violated federal regulations by housing illegals at O'Hare International Airport.

When questioned about it, Mayor Johnson says the Trump administration looks like what would happen "had the Confederacy won."

Congressional Republicans have repeatedly pressed Johnson for information on illegal aliens in his city, to which he responds with racist invective about the President. Meanwhile, he flouts federal law, inviting illegal aliens to stay at federal, state, and city facilities, providing them support and shielding them from deportation, and daring the feds to come do something about it.

Johnson has done all this with the help of collaborators in the federal government and nonprofit organizations funded by taxpayer dollars.

This is the latest in an ongoing series of articles by Restoration News reporters working with investigators and journalists on the streets of Chicago. In 2024, we worked with former firefighter Brian Armstrong, a Chicago native who traveled to Dallas to investigate a progressive Methodist church that took in "asylum seekers," using taxpayer money, and helped them travel across the interior of the United States. Last week, Restoration News worked with podcaster Terry Newsome to expose Venezuelan members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang who got assistance from Catholic Charities even as they put Chicagoans and law enforcement officers at risk of violent criminal acts.

(Read more: Venezuela’s Violent Tren de Aragua Street Gang Has Spread to Wisconsin)

The Tip of the Foreign Crime Iceberg

Armstrong, who previously dug up all the information about the church in Dallas shuttling illegal aliens across the U.S., hasn't stopped digging. Now he's uncovered some very troubling activities back home in Chicago that expose the connections between Mayor Johnson, the NGOs, and the South American gangs running drug trafficking and child trafficking operations in the city's streets—and in broad daylight.

His latest revelation came at Thanksgiving, when he stumbled upon a shady housing operation for illegals, right in the middle of O'Hare International Airport. He told Restoration News via text:

Had to drop off someone at Ohare.  Chicago supposedly got rid of the Ohare illegal check in and guess what I just found[.]

Total score just took another video and almost got caught.  They're sleeping, and a new group had just arrived.

Theres a huge story catching them here because the city said everyone was removed

Armstrong provided Restoration News with the photos and videos he captured.

signal-2025-02-03-215157_003.jpegNote the cots set up behind the tarp as temporary living quarters.

Chicago-O-Hare-Terminal-4-childrens-toys.jpegNote the children's toys.

Chicago-O-Hare-Terminal-4-illegal-living-quarters.jpegBetter view of the living quarters.

He says this set up is in Terminal 4 at O'Hare. That's an inactive terminal with a Blue Line train stop directly under it. According to Armstrong, unmarked yellow buses show up throughout the day to drop loads of folks off at this inactive terminal. The illegal aliens queue up at the check in table pictured above, and then pass through one of the gates to awaiting transportation.

"They were stopping at the bathroom," Armstrong told Restoration News, "and the entrance from the garage drop off is right there.  The city sends them out to the airport and on to the next spot.  Its like musical chairs."

Armstrong provided Restoration News with this video of the crowd processing through the gate and on to their next destination, showing the check-in desk and a security guard keeping a close eye on him as he walked by (edited for brevity).

He provided further detail in a post on LinkedIn:

Child Trafficking in Broad Daylight

Armstrong has frequently conducted casual, legal street surveillance on an often-overlooked human trafficking operation that escapes wide notice on many street corners in Chicago. According to Armstrong, women and children panhandling and holding up signs for loose change often aren't what they seem. He has witnessed many times a "handler," a man or woman across the street or up the block from the women and children, keeping an eye on them.

In these photos and videos, Armstrong shares his observations that the same child appeared with a sign asking for money at the same location on three separate days, accompanied by a different adult each time.


chicago-panhandlers-children-faces-obscured.jpegChildren's faces obscured for privacy.

When the operation is complete, the handler will transport the victims of human trafficking to an undisclosed location, presumably to give their cut of the day's take to the gangs.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson not only does nothing to stop this exploitation from happening on his city's streets—he actively encourages it by casting the federal government as the enemy instead of targeting the gangs of illegals for law enforcement operations.

Deflecting from Johnson's Mounting Scandals

Some Chicagoans have had enough of Johnson's act just a little more than a year into his first term. Armstrong wrote a guest post for Law Enforcement Today regarding the multiple congressional inquiries he's blown off since becoming mayor:

The U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, under the leadership of Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), has taken a significant step by "inviting" the mayors of four major sanctuary cities to testify before Congress.

Michelle Wu, Chicago's Brandon Johnson, Denver's Mike Johnston, and New York City's Eric Adams are the mayors in question. On January 27, 2025, Comer sent them letters requesting their presence at a public hearing scheduled for February 11, 2025. In addition to the invitation to testify, the committee has asked for documents and communications related to each city's sanctuary policies, aiming to scrutinize how these local laws impact national immigration enforcement efforts. 

When asked by a reporter about the invitation, Johnson said it's the feds' job to protect Chicagoans from violent crime committed by illegal aliens—not the mayor's.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has sent at least four letters to the mayor's office requesting information. As the Chair of the Commerce Committee, Cruz has set his sights on Chicago housing illegal immigrants at O'Hare and Midway airports, which fall under the jurisdiction of his committee. In December, the Chicago Tribune reported:

In an August letter to the mayor obtained by the Tribune via a public records request, the senator said Johnson’s staff had been unresponsive to questions he sent in January about the practice, and raised the prospect that continued noncompliance could endanger federal airport grants Chicago receives for projects at O’Hare International and Midway airports. Cruz also suggested Congress could compel Chicago officials to respond should the Johnson administration not provide answers.

Meanwhile, independent Chicago reporter William Kelly has repeatedly hammered Johnson and his staff with questions about numerous scandals:

Racist Invective from Mayor Johnson's Volcanic Temper

Mayor Johnson has earned a reputation as combative and brutish for his treatment of his political opposition. In January, he made numerous racist comments about the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled congress:

A reporter asked Johnson during a press conference on Wednesday if he planned to go to Washington, D.C. to testify about sanctuary cities as the Trump administration continues to conduct operations targeting criminal illegal aliens. "This oversight committee, of all the things that they want to have sight over, they should look at the White House right now," Johnson said. "That White House is being ran in one of the most raggedy forms of government that I've ever seen. If anybody is questioning whether or not what our country would look like had the Confederacy won, there should be no question now."

Johnson also accused Trump of rejecting the U.S. Constitution by carrying out his responsibilities.

"If they want to have a real discussion about undocumented individuals who are criminals, they should look at the very individuals who enslaved my people and colonized this land," Johnson said.

Earlier in the press conference, another reporter asked the mayor if he had toned down rhetoric about relitigating the civil war.

"I still believe that there are people who have not accepted the results of the Civil War, and here’s the thing: I said that before this administration took office," Johnson said. "Unfortunately, I’m right. I mean, you have an entire administration that is looking to take away federal protections for the people who are most vulnerable. So, no, my position has not changed."

Johnson Would Rather Fight Trump than Save Chicagoans from Violence

A shocking murder committed by illegal aliens grabbed all the recent headlines in Chicago for its brutal details.

The two illegal aliens suspected in the murder have not yet been charged for this, or other crimes they're suspected of committing:

A CPD report said that a 12-year-old girl was with the 13-year-old at the time of the alleged luring attempt, but the man is not charged with any wrongdoing against her. Both girls are the daughters of police officers, according to a source.

The report states that a detective was “working on felony charges” in the case, but a misdemeanor was filed after the detective “consulted [a prosecutor] and supervisor for guidance.”

About nine hours after being arrested, the man was released from the Jefferson Park (16th) District police station, charged only with misdemeanor assault. 

Johnson certainly isn't the first Chicago mayor who has played to the deep blue base in his city by blaming evil, far-off Republicans for the city's woes. His immediate predecessors, radical Democrats Lori Lightfoot and Rahm Emmanuel, shoulder a significant portion of blame—as does J.B. Prizker, the "progressive" governor with presidential aspirations.

But the most recent string of ultra-violent drug crimes, child trafficking, assaults, and murders, along with an entire city and state government apparatus dedicated to soft on crime policies, harkens more to a post-apocalyptic dystopian movie than modern civil society.

And that sits squarely at the feet of Mayor Brandon Johnson.

(Read more about Chicago's soft on crime insanity: A New Day Dawns as Chicago’s Soros Prosecutor Exits Stage Left)

 

Jeff Reynolds is Senior Editor for Restoration News, specializing in energy and science policy, as well as dark money. Jeff is an author, editor, strategist, and public speaker. A prolific researcher and writer, he authored the book Behind the Curtain in 2019, which details the billionaires and foundations responsible for the radical left's ascension in American politics. Jeff graduated from Connecticut College with a bachelor's in Zoology. 

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