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

Chicago police officers will be asking any person arriving at the airport through 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 offer proof will be turned away.

“In order to offer 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 out any airport small business,” the CDA stated.

The Aviation Division emphasized that the policy has been in location due to the fact 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 no matter whether the policy applied to persons selecting up or dropping off travelers at the airport.

But enforcement of that policy appeared to have waned earlier in the winter prior to it was provided additional focus in current months soon after the quantity of unhoused persons in search of shelter at the airport drew national focus and criticism.

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

“We have taken and will continue to take the actions that are essential to move persons out of the airports,” she stated then. “The airports are a quite diverse location than on the street beneath an underpass.”

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

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

An enhanced police presence could be observed at the airport in February. Such as a cadre of officers stationed at the O’Hare Blue Line quit inside the airport. They had been observed asking persons coming into the airport through the Blue Line to show their airline tickets or perform IDs, even prior to ten p.m.