Just Like Big Cities, Small Cities Also Feeling Crunch of Biden Border Crisis
Understandably, media attention tends to focus on the migrant chaos unfolding in border states and major urban areas. After all, Texas is being overrun at Eagle Pass, Chicago has seen 20,000 migrants arrive in just the last year – recently sparking backlash with Black voters, while over 150,000 migrants have arrived in New York City costing taxpayers a whopping $2.5 billion…all with no end in sight.
While big cities are facing huge problems and massive costs, what often fails to gain attention is the fact that migrants are also steadily “migrating” to smaller areas which impose similar, if not sometimes even greater impact. In fact, as FAIR reported in 2020, “States with smaller overall populations actually experience a proportionally greater effect from migrant influxes because such states typically have fewer jobs available and condensed economies, making it harder to absorb newcomers.”
Take the case of Whitewater, Wisconsin, nestled in the southern Kettle Moraine State Forest in the southeast part of Wisconsin, halfway between Milwaukee and Madison. 15,600 residents – including students at the Whitewater University of Wisconsin campus – recreate in 22 parks and on four lakes, gather in the quaint downtown, and collectively take part in the annual “Freeze Fest”, the “Farm Toy Show” and the “Christmas Parade of Lights” on Main Street. Home affordability, low crime, and a blend of both rural and urban have made the town a preferred place to live and congregate in the Badger State.
But since Joe Biden took office, all is not well in Whitewater. In fact, the town’s police chief Dan Meyer, and City Manager John Weidl have just prepared a letter to be signed by the entire City Council that will be sent to state and federal officials pleading for help.
Why? Whitewater, Wisconsin, is having the same migrant problems – albeit on a smaller scale but proportionally impactful – as New York and Chicago.
In part, the letter reads:
Whitewater is a small city of approximately 15,000 people. Since early 2022, the City has seen a rapid increase in the population of immigrants arriving from Nicaragua and Venezuela. We estimate there are roughly 800-1000 individuals who have arrived here in that short time. Regardless of the individual situations, these people need resources like anyone else, and their arrival has put a great strain on our existing resources.
Our police department has identified major challenges associated with the demographic changes which have utilized a great deal of our law enforcement resources and made it increasingly difficult to police proactively. Communications, transportation, housing, and documentation/identification concerns are some of the top obstacles that we have been addressing.
Communicating with an immigrant population that generally speaks only Spanish has been a challenge we’ve worked to overcome through the use of costly translation software. We have found approximately three times the number of unlicensed drivers on our roadways compared to previous years. This occupies much of our time and takes away from our ability to serve in other aspects. (During the first eight months of 2022, the Whitewater Police Department issued more than 200 citations for operating without a license – roughly a threefold increase compared to that time period in 2020.)
And, although another section of the letter mentions multiple violent crimes — which it says were tied to recent migrants — Meyer said his aim was not to vilify any group of people.
Whitewater Police Chief Myer, has no political ax to grind. Like thousands of other small-town public servants, he’s just trying to balance essential services with existing resources, now strained to the breaking point by an illegal immigration crisis manufactured in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, his letter to federal officials, including delivery to the Department of Homeland Secretary Alexandra Mayorkas, will probably fall on deaf ears.
Without immediate closure of the border, interior enforcement, and the rigorous enforcement of all Congressionally-mandated immigration laws, big cities and hundreds of small ones will continue to suffer and systematically collapse under the demands placed upon them.