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Source: Wisconsin Right Now
Whitewater Begs Biden for Funds to Deal With 'Acute' Immigration Crisis
By Jessica McBride | January 3, 2024
The City of Whitewater's police chief and manager sent President Joe Biden a letter begging for financial help to deal with an "acute" immigration crisis that has led to sexual assaults, a "critical humanitarian issue," an explosion in unlicensed drivers, and a reduction in the overwhelmed Police Department's ability to engage in proactive policing.
Source: Wisconsin Right Now
Whitewater Begs Biden for Funds to Deal With 'Acute' Immigration Crisis
By Jessica McBride | January 3, 2024
The City of Whitewater's police chief and manager sent President Joe Biden a letter begging for financial help to deal with an "acute" immigration crisis that has led to sexual assaults, a "critical humanitarian issue," an explosion in unlicensed drivers, and a reduction in the overwhelmed Police Department's ability to engage in proactive policing.
"This is a critical humanitarian issue, and our city needs government assistance in order to continue to serve our entire community properly," they wrote.
The letter to President Joe Biden is dated Dec. 28, 2023. It says that immigrants, some in the country illegally, have flooded the small community of 15,000 people since early 2022.
The issue has been simmering for some time. In November, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson wrote that he had "a sobering and eye-opening briefing with law enforcement in Walworth County about the effect of illegal immigration on their small community." At that time, Johnson indicated that cartel activity has increased in the area, writing, "Law enforcement says their drug arrests have traced a quarter million dollars from Whitewater directly back to drug cartels."
Officers have seen "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," the Whitewater officials' letter says. "We've seen many over-occupied apartments that create nonfamilial living situations, which unfortunately has led to a number of situations involving juvenile victims of sexual assault."
In the letter, Whitewater Police Chief Daniel A. Meyer and City Manager John S. Weidl asked Biden for "your assistance in obtaining resources" related to the "significant challenges the City of Whitewater faces related to ongoing demographic change."
They wrote: "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."
Whitewater "is a small city of approximately 15,000 people," the letter says. "Since early 2022, the City has seen a rapid increase in the population of immigrants arriving from Nicaragua and Venezuela. We estimate that there are roughly 800-1,000 individuals who have arrived here in that short time."
They noted: "Each individual has a different reason for coming here; some are fleeing from a corrupt government, others are simply looking for a better opportunity to prosper. Regardless of the individual situations, these people need resources like anyone else, and their arrival has put great strain on our existing resources."
The letter says immigrants have come to the United States with a "variety of legal statuses," saying some are "seeking asylum, some await a federal court date, and others are here undocumented."
The city is increasingly "finding it difficult" to provide the resources "expected of a municipality to all residents of the city," they wrote. The Whitewater Police Department "has identified major challenges associated with the demographic change which have utilized a great deal of our law enforcement resources and made it increasingly difficult to police proactively," the letter says. "Communication, transportation, housing, and documentation/identification concerns are some of the top obstacles that we have been addressing."
The letter says Whitewater has faced the following issues:
• "Communicating with an immigrant population that generally speaks only Spanish has been a challenge we've worked to overcome by the use of costly translation software."The city indicated it was not sharing the information as "a means of denigrating or vilifying this group of people."
• The letter says the city has "found approximately three times the number of unlicensed drivers on our roadways compared to previous years. This occupies much of their time and takes away from our ability to serve in other aspects."
• "We've also encountered a significant trust barrier between the immigrant population and law enforcement. In many cases, this has led to individuals providing false documents and misleading our staff, which further increases our time involved in investigating cases."
Please go to Wisconsin Right Now to continue reading.
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This is directly related to the immigrants being transferred into America from Latin America:
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