Whitewater Police Vehicle - Photo by Whitewater Police Department
WHITEWATER, WI (WSAU) – Officials from the City of Whitewater have written to President Joe Biden pleading for financial assistance to address a “critical humanitarian issue,” which is an “acute” immigration crisis that has resulted in a rise in crime throughout the city.
According to Wisconsin Right Now, the letter was received on December 28th, 2023, and states that since early 2022, immigrants, some of whom are in the U.S. illegally, have swamped the town of only 15,000 people.
The letter goes into detail about what officers have seen, saying, “First-hand, the terrible living conditions that many migrants are living in. We’ve seen a family living in a 10’x10’ shed in -10-degree temperatures. We’ve seen many over-occupied apartments that create nonfamilial living situations, which unfortunately has led to many situations involving juvenile victims of sexual assault.”
“Our law enforcement staff have responded to a number of serious crimes linked to immigrants in some manner, including the death of an infant child, multiple sexual assaults, and a kidnapping,” the letter continued.
The city cited in the letter that since 2022, around 800 to 1,000 migrants have been dropped off in Whitewater from countries such as Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Wisconsin Right Now reported that other concerns that officers have encountered including that they’ve “found approximately three times the number of unlicensed drivers on our roadways compared to previous years,” and the language barrier has made those types of encounters without expensive translation software difficult.
Whitewater noted that they are not looking to “vilify” the immigrants being dropped off in the city, but they’re “in dire need of additional resources.”
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson has addressed Whitewater’s immigration concerns in recent months, saying, “Whitewater is still a safe community, but the root cause of these issues is our nation’s wide open southern border. I have said many times that our open border presents a clear and present danger to national security. Six million people have crossed our borders since President Biden took office. That’s more people than live in the entire state of Wisconsin. We must secure our border.”
Congressman Tom Tiffany also weighed in on the issues, saying, “By releasing migrants into small towns in Wisconsin, Joe Biden’s border crisis is piling new costs on local taxpayers. Wisconsinites cannot continue footing the bill for Biden’s failed immigration policies.”
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