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Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker<\/strong> issued<\/a> an unusually blunt letter Friday to his Texas counterpart, Republican Governor Greg Abbott,<\/strong> asking him to halt the transport of asylum seekers to Illinois, because the state \u2014 and far of the US \u2014 is encased in an Arctic blast leading to subzero temperatures. \u201cI plead with you for mercy for the thousands of people who are powerless to speak for themselves,\u201d Pritzker wrote.<\/p>\n The humanitarian plea comes as Chicago was hit by a major winter storm on Friday, with some elements of town experiencing as much as eight inches of snow. Plummeting temperatures have already descended upon Chicago, with the National Weather Service forecasting<\/a> wind chill numbers as little as destructive 30 levels Fahrenheit. On Friday, town was utilizing<\/a> idling buses to heat newly arrived migrants.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease, while winter is threatening vulnerable people\u2019s lives, suspend your transports and do not send more people to our state,\u201d Pritzker wrote in his \u201cappeal to [Abbott\u2019s] humanity,\u201d including that many asylum seekers have been arriving \u201cwithout coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow. The Illinois Governor also accused Abbott of \u201cdropping off asylum seekers without alerting us to their arrivals, at improper locations at all hours of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n Since April of 2022, Abbott, one of the staunchly anti-immigrant governors within the GOP, has been sending<\/a> buses of immigrants to Democratic cities and states. As of December, Texas had despatched over 30,000 folks to Chicago.<\/p>\n The Democratic Illinois governor acknowledged the necessity for \u201cbipartisan solutions to the border crisis\u201d in his letter Friday, however wrote that Abbott had as a substitute \u201cchosen to sow chaos in an attempt to score political points.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour callousness, sending buses and planes full of migrants in this weather, is now life-threatening to every one of the arrivals,\u201d Pritzker added. \u201cHundreds of children\u2019s and families\u2019 health and survival are at risk due to your actions.<\/p>\n Abbott\u2019s office responded to Pritzker Friday, saying it would not halt the transfers unless President Joe Biden<\/strong> secures the southern border. The office added that Texas expects to experience frigid weather during this weekend\u2019s \u201carctic blast.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of complaining about migrants sent from Texas, where we are also preparing to experience severe winter weather across the state, Governor Pritzker should call on his party leader to finally do his job and secure the border \u2014 something he continues refusing to do,\u201d Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris<\/strong> wrote<\/a> in an electronic mail to the Chicago Sun-Times.<\/em> \u201cUntil President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue transporting migrants to sanctuary cities to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n