EXCLUSIVE Inside Chicago’s deplorable, freezing migrant Pilsen shelter where boy, five, died after falling ill and four other children have been hospitalized: Videos show dozens of sick children

• Jean Carlos Martinez, five, died at Pilsen migrant camp in Chicago on Sunday
• Footage from inside the shelter showed sick and distressed kids
• Chicago is struggling to care for 26,000 immigrants sent from southern border 

Shocking videos show sick and distressed children crammed into a warehouse with no heating alongside thousands of other migrants in Chicago.

The deplorable facility is where five-year-old Jean Carlo Martinez Rivero fell ill was pronounced dead Sunday after being taken to the hospital.

Four other children, aged between one and 14, were also hospitalized after suffering fevers and other ailments at the Pilsen shelter south of downtown.

The video, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, shows 2,300 migrants huddled together in freezing temperatures underneath a leaking roof.

Volunteers told DailyMail.com they feared weeks ago that the conditions could lead to deaths among the sick children.

Five-year-old Jean Carlo Martinez Rivero fell ill while at the Pilsen migrant shelter and was pronounced dead on arrival in hospital on Sunday days later

One video showed a young boy with what appeared to be a bandage on his head lying on a thin fold-out bed, distracting himself with a tablet.

Another shows a different child coughing and crying as they had their temperature taken and were examined by volunteers.

A third video showed water leaking from the roof and pooling on one of the beds. 

‘When the water is thrown up here… since all that the wood is rotting from the water that fell here – look, it has water,’ a man said in Spanish as he filmed.

The converted warehouse appeared to be doing a poor job at keeping out the Chicago winter chill, which will fall as low as 31F this week. 

A photo showed a small girl bundled up in a pink puffer jacket and matching pants and beanie.

Volunteers on October 15 sent an email detailing their concerns about conditions in the shelter to two City of Chicago officials.

‘Dozens of sick people, including children, denied analgesics and other palliative measures,’ wrote Annie Gomberg, with the city’s Police Station Response Team.

‘If a resident needs medical help, they are on their own with no advice other than to call 911, and told that it will “cost them a lot of money” to use an ambulance and go to a hospital as a deterrent.

‘I thought we were paying for doctors and nurses?’

A photo of a small girl bundled up in a pink puffer jacket and matching pants and beanie showed the warehouse was not keeping out the winter chill

One video showed a young boy with what appeared to be a bandage on his head lying on a thin fold-out bed, distracting himself with a tablet

This video shows different child coughing and crying as they had their temperature taken and were examined by volunteers

Gomberg described how drinking water was rationed in 4 to 6oz cups and there was insufficient food and bathrooms for the 2,300 migrants living there.

Another volunteer in WhatsApp group discussions described a day when the water ran out and migrants were told ‘it was a factory and the manager said not to drink the tap water’.

Gomberg warned children were not given any vaccinations, which combined with everyone living in close quarters, could be deadly.

‘I predict a disease outbreak like measles within the next six months without further intervention,’ she wrote.

‘They don’t provide clothes or sufficient blankets and bedding, all are supplied by private citizens committed to alleviating suffering.’

There was also no access to a laundry, at least one the broke migrants could afford, so everyone was wearing dirty clothes.

In the WhatsApp group, another volunteer said a migrant recently moved to the shelter ‘called crying that they had no clothes and her two-year-old is really cold and his jacket was stolen by others’.

Jean was sick with a fever and a pain in his left leg for two or three days before he died and began vomiting on Sunday morning 

A third video showed water leaking from the roof and pooling on one of the beds

The shelter is run by Favorite Healthcare Staffing, a Kansas-based contractor, which the city paid $100 million to operate since September 2022

Migrants have previously described outbreaks of chickenpox, the flu, and upper respiratory infections inside the shelter.

They said some children got eye infections from fiber-like debris falling from the ceiling, and were not given any medication if they were sick.

Food was the same chicken and rice every day, often too spicy for children to eat, and sometimes spoiled. Other food couldn’t be kept and was thrown away by staff if discovered during regular inspections. 

The shelter is run by Favorite Healthcare Staffing, a Kansas-based contractor, which the city paid $100 million to operate since September 2022. 

Chicago is struggling to care for 26,000 immigrants sent from Texas and other border states on buses after crossing the border over the past year. The city has spent $138 million on the crisis that is only expected to get worse as temperatures drop as winter goes on.

Little Jean Carlo Martinez Rivero was sick with a fever and pain in his left leg for two or three days before he died and began vomiting on Sunday morning.

His lips turned blue and his family claimed to police that staff said it was ‘probably because of the cold’ and refused to call an ambulance.

While his father was pleading for an ambulance, Jean had a seizure and shelter staff gave him CPR, according to a police report seen by the Chicago Tribune.

He was rushed to Comer Children’s Hospital about 3pm and pronounced dead at 3.47pm. His family were not allowed to ride with him and were instead patted down and driven in a police car.

Jean was bleeding from his mouth and nose with a 100F fever and suffered from diarrhea for days before his death.

Jean’s death is being investigated and an autopsy by Cook County medical examiner on Monday was inconclusive, pending further investigation.

Video shot by a passerby showed rubbish piled up outside the shelter. The converted factory was the subject of numerous complaints about unsanitary conditions

The Chicago Fire Department said a three-year-old boy was taken to hospital vomiting, a seven-year-old girl with an ear infection, and one-year-old, a four-year-old, and 18-year-old with other medical complaints.

A 47-year-old woman was also taken to a hospital with chest pain on Tuesday morning.

Chicago and other northern American cities have struggled to find housing for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers, many of whom have been bused from Texas throughout the past year. 

Earlier this month, hundreds of asylum-seekers still awaited placement at airports and police stations in Chicago, some of them still camped on sidewalks outside precinct buildings. 

Mayor Brandon Johnson said the blame for Jean’s death lay squarely with southern governors for busing in thousands of immigrants to the ‘sanctuary city’. 

‘They’re just dropping off people anywhere. Do you understand how raggedy and how evil that is… and then you want to hold us accountable for something that’s happening down at the border? It’s sickening?’ he said.

Mayor Johnson insisted the asylum-seekers arrived in Chicago unwell due to the conditions they were held in at the border before being loaded on to buses.

‘Do you hear me? They’re showing up sick. The issue is not just how we respond in the city of Chicago, it’s the fact that we have a governor — a governor, an elected official in the state of Texas — that is placing families on buses without shoes, cold, wet, tired, hungry, afraid, traumatized,’ he said. 

‘And then they come to the city of Chicago where we have homelessness, we have mental health clinics that have been shut down and closed.

‘The governor of Texas needs to take a look in the mirror [and see] the chaos that he is causing for this country.

‘This is not just a Chicago dynamic, he is attacking our country.’ 

Videos from inside the Pilsen shelter (pictured) showed coughing and crying children, some so cold they were wearing snow jackets, and water leaking from the ceiling onto the cots below

O’Hare International Airport accommodated hundreds of migrants in a screened off area as the crisis gathered steam this summer

The mayor’s office said the city had resettled or reunited more than 10,000 migrants and was sheltering 13,992 at 27 temporary shelters, and doubled down on blaming southern governors.

‘Many new arrivals survive brutal and dangerous journeys to border states and are promptly and inhumanely shipped out with little to no triage,’ it said.

‘In border states, new arrivals are spending the night outdoors without a shower, running water, or food. 

‘Border states do not take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of individuals they load onto buses. 

‘This carelessness directly contributed to the death of a three-year-old girl in September of this year and may continue to have devastating effects.’

The mayor’s office said an investigation was ongoing and any changes to safety protocols for staff would be made based on the findings.  

The city said it was ticketing and impounding buses trying to drop off migrants outside designated zones.

‘As temperatures continue to fall, the city is enacting stricter penalties to discourage bus companies from flouting these protocols,’ it said.

‘The inhumane treatment further endangers the safety and security of asylum seekers, and adds additional strain to City departments, volunteers and mutual aid partners tasked with easing what is already a harsh transition.’

Mayor Brandon Johnson said the blame for Jean’s death lay squarely with southern governors for busing in thousands of immigrants 

Although the city reports that police stations have been mostly cleared, massive shelters are not necessarily a safe alternative, said Annie Gomberg, a volunteer with the city’s Police Station Response Team who has been working with Chicago’s new arrivals since April.

Gomberg said people staying at the Pilsen shelter told her mold was visible inside, and lack of insulation made the repurposed warehouse very cold.

Last week, Mayor Johnson ordered city lawmakers to quash a bid to put the controversial ‘Welcoming City Ordinance’ to a referendum on Chicago’s March primary ballot.

Sanctuary city status means that city officials are forbidden from asking questions about a person’s immigration status, or revealing it to federal authorities.

Police in the city are not allowed to arrest anyone solely because they are an illegal immigrant, and the city will not co-operate with an investigation by immigration authorities unless ordered to by a court.

More than 560 cities, states and counties across the US have declared themselves sanctuaries, and Chicago adopted the status in 1985. 

But sanctuary cities have been a favorite target of governors on the southern border who have bussed thousands of migrants north to them as the migration crisis has gathered steam.

Residents protested in Brighton Park against the proposed migrant camp to accommodate the influx of migrants

Johnson was among five Democratic city mayors who headed to DC last month to beg the Biden administration for a staggering $5 billion in federal funds to deal with the issue. 

‘Our cities need additional resources that far exceed the amount proposed in order to properly care for the asylum seekers entering our communities,’ they wrote.

‘Relying on municipal budgets is not sustainable and has forced us to cut essential city services.’

Johnson accused his opponents of ‘meanness’ and claimed a public vote on sanctuary status would do nothing to address the strain from migrants.

‘This is a crisis, and as I’ve said, it’s not going to go away because people are upset,’ he told reporters on Wednesday.

‘Now unfortunately, you have individuals that have used this as a way to execute its meanness.

‘That type of meanness has caused the type of strife that we’re experiencing now.’

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