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 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.”
The city indicated it was not sharing the information as “a means of denigrating or vilifying this group of people.”
“We are in dire need of additional resources. We need additional staffing specifically in the police department but also in the form of an immigrant liaison position,” the chief and city manager wrote.
As evidence that the influx is harming the department’s ability to conduct proactive policing, they indicated that the department averaged 2,437 self-initiated traffic stops annually from 2010-2021. In 2022, that number was reduced to 1,719″ and in 2023 the city is on pace for 1,246. “That is an incredible statistic that shows how our staff is struggling to address the workload,” they wrote.
“The impact of demographic change that we are seeing in Whitewater is acute. It is unique in Walworth County and even in the State of Wisconsin,” they noted.
The letter’s existence was first reported by Breitbart.
In his November statement, Johnson wrote that he and U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil had heard from local law enforcement on the problem.
“U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil and I listened to local law enforcement officers led by Walworth County Sheriff Dave Gerber and Whitewater Police Chief Dan Meyer as they explained what they’re seeing in their county,” Johnson wrote.
“The national media will pay attention to big cities like Chicago and New York but little mention is made of the challenges faced by smaller cities. The impact on Walworth County resources is devastating,” he added. “Issues range from communication barriers, to overcrowded housing, to overburdened schools. And then there’s the criminal element bringing with it cocaine and fentanyl. Law enforcement says their drug arrests have traced a quarter million dollars from Whitewater directly back to drug cartels.”
According to Johnson, “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.”
In October, KCRG reported that a Whitewater man named Yefferson Guzman Rodriquez was accused of holding a woman “against her will for several days” and pointing a gun at her head. He was described as armed, possibly with “multiple rifles.”
According to Whitewater Wise, when the letter was presented at a city council meeting, aldermen suggested also sending it to other officials, “Councilman Neil Hicks offered a list, including U.S. President Joe Biden, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin, and U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil and Scott Fitzgerald,” the article states. “Councilwoman Brienne Brown suggested that State Rep. Ellen Schutt be added to the list. Councilman David Stone suggested that Gov. Tony Evers also be added to the list.”
