Last week, Townhall reported how a legal immigrant in Denver, Colorado told reporters that illegal immigrant camps in town have hurt her business and her community. In an interview with the Denver Gazette, the woman, Tip Cordova, said “I want to cry right now,” and “I can’t take it anymore.”
In recent years, the border crisis has grown astronomically, impacting cities all across America. And, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, began sending illegal immigrants on buses to blue cities to share the burden of the crisis.
Now, one small midwest city is asking President Joe Biden for help dealing with the migrants.
Leaders of the city of Whitewater, Wisconsin have asked Biden for help with the surge of illegal immigrants arriving from Nicaragua and Venezuela, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
The letter, led by Whitewater Police Chief Dan Meyer and co-signed by City Manager John Weid, asks for funding to hire more police officers and other staff to respond to the influx of migrants.
"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," the letter stated. "Regardless of the individual situations, these people need resources like anyone else, and their arrival has put great strain on our existing resources."
“We know that these individuals have come here with a variety of legal statuses; some are seeking asylum, some await a federal court date, and others are here undocumented,” it continued.
"A number of non-profit organizations have taken great strides in providing this group with basic essentials like clothing and medical care," the letter added. "However, with additional funding, the City could begin to incentivize new initiatives such as ride-share programs, affordable housing opportunities, and language courses."
Welcome to the small college town of Whitewater, Wisconsin with a population of just 15,000 people.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 3, 2024
Biden just flooded this town with 1,000 illegals. The city says they do not have the capacity or resources to handle it.
Some illegals are reportedly sleeping in sheds in… pic.twitter.com/GXb9u172tn
With the increase in illegal immigrants in town, the police have seen over-occupied apartments, which has led to “a number of 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 explained.
Meyer told WPR that the police department has spent an estimated $6,000 on translation services in 2023. And, there’s been a spike of unlicensed drivers operating vehicles throughout the city (via WPR):
During the first eight months of 2022, the department issued more than 200 citations for operating without a license — roughly a threefold increase compared to that time period in 2020, according to information provided by the Whitewater Police Department.
WPR noted that the letter was signed by all of Whitewater’s Common Council members. The letter was sent to Biden, as well as Wisconsin's Democratic Gov. Tony Evers (via WPR):
The letter estimates between 800 and 1,000 new people have arrived in the city, over a roughly two-year period starting in early 2022. The department reached those figures by extrapolating from school enrollment data, Meyer said.
"I'll be the first to say that that's our best guess. And that's a very difficult number to get accurate, because we're talking about at least a portion of the population that's undocumented," Meyer said in an interview with WPR.