String of retail thefts, burglaries by migrants plaguing Chicago suburb: authorities

A Chicago suburb has been battered by a string of recent crimes committed by migrants who live in or near the Windy City.

From Oct. 23 to Jan. 17, a total of 47 migrants were arrested in Oak Brook, Illinois, mostly for alleged property crimes, according to Brian Strockis, the chief of police for the Oak Brook Police Department.

Most of the migrants who were arrested were charged with retail theft and burglary, Strockis told Fox News Digital.

The latest incident involved an Ecuadorian migrant who resides in Chicago and is accused of stealing more than $3,000 worth of merchandise from retail stores and evading Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervision by cutting off his electronic monitoring device.


“We are firm in our efforts against organized retail crime as we endlessly protect our community. We want everyone to be aware of the increase in criminal activity from the migrant community coming from Chicago,” Oak Brook Deputy Chief of Police Reid Foltyniewicz said at the time.


Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about their efforts to protect retailers and small businesses from theft by migrants, or their accounting for migrants who currently reside in the U.S. who choose to remove their monitoring devices.

Several American cities have been forced to deal with the effects of the nationwide migrant crisis as thousands of migrants arrive at the southern border each day.