Craig Johnson
Elk Grove Village officials have repealed rules — enacted less than an year ago, in an attempt to prevent migrants from staying at local motels — that required complex medical documentation for anyone renting a room who hasn’t lived in the country for at least a year.
The regulations were enacted last November, when busloads of migrants were sent to Chicago and the suburbs by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. But those numbers have decreased significantly.
Since enacting the ordinance, Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said there were no reports of migrants staying in local hotels, and none since nearly 100 Venezuelan migrants left the former La Quinta Inn in April 2023. The motel — since purchased and demolished by the village — was among the first suburban locations to host new arrivals in September 2022.
To prevent migrants from coming back, Elk Grove’s ordinance barred hotel and motel owners from providing a room to anyone without certified medical documentation verifying that the individual is free of contagious diseases, such as malaria or tuberculosis, over the last 60 days.
That certification could only come from a board-certified infectious disease physician, according to the ordinance, and not a “regular, run-of-the-mill” doctor, Johnson said at the time.
The requirement didn’t apply to anyone living in the United States for at least a year.
But during a recent review of inspection policies of local businesses, village officials determined the medical documentation rule “wasn’t necessary,” said Johnson, who didn’t elaborate.
He said hotel owners never contacted him about the ordinance — good, bad or indifferent. When asked, the mayor wouldn’t say if the village received any kind of legal pushback about it.
“We just feel it’s not necessary,” Johnson said. “We clean up things, doing some book stuff, we took it out.”
The village board unanimously voted on a repeal Tuesday — the same day the city of Chicago announced the planned closure of three migrant shelters, amid more than 5,000 available beds in shelters citywide.
Elk Grove is keeping a different part of its ordinance that aims to prevent owners of warehouses or vacant shopping centers from turning their buildings into temporary housing. Property owners have to get a village license and meet certain zoning and health and safety requirements, such as providing a complete bathroom including flush toilet, sink, bath or shower in each sleeping unit.