Yet Another Small Town Struggling with Migrant Surges
Throughout the Biden-Harris administration, big cities such as New York, Chicago, and Boston have received the lion’s share of the media’s attention whenever it reported on the impact of migrant surges. It’s understandable given the staggering number of illegal aliens arriving in those areas, and the scale of chaos that has ensued. Understandable too, given that American news media outlets often focus their coverage on major urban centers in which they’re located. Yet a change has been occurring. Increasingly, small towns struggling to accommodate migrant surges of their own are getting headlines
- New York Post: Ohio town (Lockland Village) struggling after influx of illegal immigrants: ‘I don’t know how they found our small village.”
- Fox News: Wisconsin city (Whitewater) asks Biden for help with 1,000 migrants that put ‘great strain’ on resources
- CNN: ‘Why Springfield?’ How a small Ohio city became home for thousands of Haitians
- Newsweek: Migrants Get Up to Two Years Free Rent for New Apartments (Brunswick, Maine)
Now add Logansport, Indiana, to the growing list.
This all-American, relatively isolated, and cohesive community of 18,000 is located 80 miles to the north of Indianapolis. Visitors have always been encouraged to take quaint rides on the refurbished 1901 hand-carved Dentzel Carousel in Riverside Park, to shop at the vibrant downtown Farmers Market, and in autumn, to enjoy the town’s annual Elks Halloween Parade.
Today however, those wanting to get a sense of Logansport — and its current discontent — might want to take along a translation guide; people from at least 28 countries call Logansport home with at least 27 languages spoken. For further insight, it’s worth a trip to the Tysons poultry plant just outside town which local residents claim is the reason for their rapid influx of migrants, but no one is quite sure; Tysons officials aren’t responding to media requests. As in so many small towns, the surge has happened so quickly that local officials are scrambling for answers and pleading for help from federal officials.
What is certain is this: Logansport’s population has increased by 30 percent since 2021 following a wave of migrants, according to Cass County Health Department Administrator Serenity Alter. This would imply that more than 5,000 migrants have arrived. Chris Martin, the city’s mayor, suggests the number is closer to 2,000 to 3,000 over the last four years.
Local schools are feeling the pinch. Officials report the number of Haitian immigrant students in the Logansport schools has increased 15-fold, from 14 in 2021 to 207 this year. Parents are concerned and tensions are rising. As reported by the New York Post, one mother revealed that her 16-year-old daughter dropped out of the local high school because teachers seemingly had no time for the English-speaking pupils anymore, and is now being homeschooled instead. “There were way too many kids and it seemed to her that since they didn’t speak the language, or didn’t understand what was going on, they were getting more attention,” the mother said.
Predictably, demands on health care have also spiked with a dramatic rise in emergency room visits. Alter reveals that “It has been necessary for the hospital, health department and express clinics to boost translation services in order to ensure that medical needs are understood.”
Facing intense blowback on the growing crisis from Logansport residents, some of whom are calling for his resignation, Mayor Martin admitted the city is facing “some assimilation issues” stemming from the rapid migrant influx, but primarily chalked it up to “different culture beliefs.”
The comments are laughable understatements and a disservice to local residents worried about the rapid changes to their community and depletion of its resources.
It’s time for leaders of small communities to forcefully repudiate open-border policies. After all, while it’s true that big cities are facing massive migrant costs, it’s also true that migrants are steadily populating smaller areas like Logansport. This results in similar, and sometimes even greater, taxpayer impact. As FAIR reported in 2020, “States and municipalities with smaller overall populations actually experience a proportionally greater impact from migrant influxes because such areas typically have fewer jobs available, condensed economies, and limited resources making it harder to absorb newcomers.”