CHICAGO — Hundreds turned out Friday afternoon in Brighton Park to march in protest of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to erect winterized tents to house 2,000 migrants in an empty parking lot.

Many residents of the neighborhood — which has historically been a haven for immigrants — are worried about the plan to house thousands of migrants. They think politicians are not listening to them.

Ruth Diaz, a Mexican American who has lived in Brighton Park for 33 years, was one of about 300 people who turned out for the march.

Diaz said the close to 21,000 migrants who have arrived since last August have not had to work for what they’re being given by the city. She owned a grocery store near the proposed site and said she worked hard to send her daughter to nursing school.

She held a sign that said: “Protejan nuestra comunidad. Protect our community.”

“The migrants want everything in a dish ready to eat,” she said. “Why do they get off so easy?”

The protest came as the city continues an environmental assessment to determine whether it’s safe to have people live on the property. Johnson signed a six-month, $548,400 land use contract on Oct. 26. for the location on the corner of 38th Street and California, but a final determination is awaiting the outcome of that study.

County property records show the Brighton Park site is owned by Barnacres Corp., a Markham-based company helmed by Otoniel “Tony” Sanchez. Sanchez is the president or manager of several other businesses registered to the same Markham address, including Sanchez Paving Co., which offers concrete as well as asphalt paving, patching and overlay, according to its website.

Sanchez was also a Johnson donor, giving $1,500 to the mayor’s political fund in August, two months before the city signed the land use contract with his site at 38th and California. On Friday, Johnson’s campaign announced it was returning 30 donations totaling $46,500 in campaign contributions following a Sun-Times investigation that found city contractors were donating to the mayor against the ethics rules.

Bill Neidhardt, political adviser to Johnson, said in a Friday statement that the $1,500 contribution had no influence on the base-camp site decision. He said city workers involved in scouting locations did not know about the donation and received an unsolicited “inquiry” about the Brighton Park property.

“The mayor did not solicit this contribution and was unaware of this contribution until its return this month,” Neidhardt said. “This particular parcel came from an unsolicited inbound inquiry addressed to city personnel tasked with identifying properties and who did not have any knowledge of this minor campaign contribution. The decision to advance this property was based solely on the standard analysis performed on all such properties by said personnel.”