These arriving by CTA train at O’Hare Airport for the duration of overnight hours will need to give proof they have “business” there to be permitted to enter, officials stated.

Chicago police officers will be asking anybody arriving at the airport by means of the Blue Line involving ten p.m. and four a.m. for “proof of airport small business,” such as an airline boarding pass or an employee badge, the Chicago Division of Aviation stated in a statement.

These who can not give proof will be turned away.

“In order to give a safe atmosphere at O’Hare International Airport, CDA safety personnel perform with the Chicago Police Division (CPD) to enforce current laws, which make clear that it is unlawful to be at Chicago’s airports with no any airport small business,” the CDA stated.

The Aviation Division emphasized that the policy has been in location given that 2020. As a safe place, O’Hare does not permit members of the public to be at the airport unless they are flying in or out or perform there. It was unclear whether or not the policy applied to folks choosing up or dropping off travelers at the airport.

But enforcement of that policy appeared to have waned earlier in the winter just before it was provided further consideration in current months immediately after the quantity of unhoused folks in search of shelter at the airport drew national consideration and criticism.

In February, Mayor Lori Lightfoot acknowledged the seriousness of the issue but argued that conservative media had blown the challenge out of proportion.

“We have taken and will continue to take the measures that are required to move folks out of the airports,” she stated then. “The airports are a pretty various location than on the street beneath an underpass.”

Haymarket Center’s O’Hare Outreach plan, which connects these experiencing homelessness and in search of shelter at the airport with sources, has stated that although the quantity of folks in search of shelter at O’Hare in the winter months often increases, the enhance has been greater not too long ago.

“We’re gonna continue inside the bounds of the law to do what is required to give these people with help — but elsewhere. They can not be in our airports,” the mayor stated.

An elevated police presence could be observed at the airport in February. Such as a cadre of officers stationed at the O’Hare Blue Line cease inside the airport. They had been observed asking folks coming into the airport by means of the Blue Line to show their airline tickets or perform IDs, even just before ten p.m.