A Tale of Four Flags: Whitewater Trump Supporter Perspective on Immigration 

As you drive down Main Street of the small, college town Whitewater Wis. four large flags blowing in the wind posted on Mills Automotive shop might catch your attention. An American flag, a flag that reads “Jesus, the way – truth – life,” an Israel flag and a back-the-badge flag, all fly high on the side of the auto repair shop, arguably an intriguing combination and political statement.

Mills Automotive provides automotive repairs, engine and transmission exchange as well as towing services. The shop is family-owned by Charles Mills. This shop has operated for the past 17 years, but more recently in the past two years has tended to the migrant population that has made Whitewater their home.

“They are a big customer of ours in a sense,” Mills said. “Not by choice, but because they can’t drive, so we have to haul their cars because we are a towing company for the police department. So, I have a lot of interactions with them, and that’s where my relationship with our new neighbors is evolving.”

The Significance Behind the Back-the-Badge Flag

“The thin blue line is simply that I am backing up the local law enforcement,” Mills said. “There will not be anarchy in Whitewater period; we are going to play by the rules.”

If anyone, regardless of immigration status, drives without a license or insurance, operating a vehicle is against the law. Undocumented immigrants are prohibited from obtaining a license in the state of Wisconsin, this has led to an increase in migrants driving without a license in Whitewater. Most commonly migrants get caught without a license when they commit an infraction like speeding or running a stop sign, then their car gets towed, according to Mills, likely while they were trying to learn the rules of American roads.

In that case Mills Automotive stores the towed cars until the owner comes to pay the fee, then the car is returned to them. There are enough of these situations where it has become overwhelming to the local police department because they were not prepared for the rapid influx of migrants in their town. So, in return, they have to spend more of their time with smaller infractions like these, rather than more major detective work, according to Mills.

“Some people will project that they are all criminals and that’s not the case,” Mills said. “I would say 99% of them came here because it’s a better life. I go to church with them, and they thank God for things like the freedom to worship without having the church burnt down or somebody killed out in front of it.”

Mills commends Whitewater’s local police department and government officials for the way they have handled the influx of migrants in their town. He believes that they have kept Whitewater safe and free of crime, homelessness and anarchy, unlike some other cities with a high migrant population like Portland, San Francisco and Chicago.

The “Jesus, the way – truth – life” Flag

Regarding the arrival of migrants in Whitewater, Mills has made the decision to take it with a religious approach on a personal level and sees them as a gift from God.

“Just like a child if anything comes your way now you are the steward of it,” Mills said. “So, you have to nurture it and move it along. Just because you happen to be at the right place at the right time. You can’t choose that.”

Mills decided to attend the Spanish Mass, “originally to get to know my neighbors, what better way than to worship with them,” he said.

The church Mills goes to has a Spanish-to-English translation device that at first, he believed was for people like him, non-Spanish speakers. Later on, he realized that they were actually for the migrant children. More often than not, the fathers of these children, who generally only speak Spanish, are gone all day working on the egg or dairy farms. So, they don’t have time to teach or keep their children refreshed in their native language. The mothers are busy trying to hold everything together in a strange new country, while the kids are at school all day speaking English.

The Israel flag refers to the matter of Oct. 7, Mills views it similarly to America’s 9/11. After the attack, the United States took out a country and a dictator. Mills questions why Israel would handle things any differently.

“I put that up there to back them,” Mills said. “I think that the Christians and Jews should hang together because if they are going to get rid of them, they are going to get rid of us too. I mean that’s the aim of the liberal left anyway.”

The American Flag

Mills does not believe that America should stop all future immigrants from coming, but it should be done the proper legal way, “the way it has always been.” Though it took him some time to get used to, he has no problem with migrants being in Whitewater, but on a federal level, he does not feel that everyone who is coming in over the border illegally is okay or sustainable.

“We have to protect the sovereignty of our nation,” Mills said.

When it comes to Former President and 2024 Republican candidate Donald Trump, Mills deems that the narrative of him being a bad guy was made up by the liberal left to keep control and get votes. He does not think that Trump has ever done anything wrong or is guilty of any of the charges against him, other than him not being very personable.

“He wouldn’t have lost the election if he hadn’t pissed off half of the white women in America,” Mills said.

In the matter of Trump’s position on Immigration, Mills does not think he will deport all immigrants if he wins the upcoming presidential election. He believes that in order to capture voters Trump will say things like “everyone needs to be deported,” but it will not actually happen. In his last term, Trump went after the MS-13 gang, murderers and rapists to be deported, according to Mills, and that is what he presumes Trump will do again.

“I think he’ll go down as the second-best president we have ever had, other than Lincoln,” Mills said. “In 20 years from now, in the history books, it is going to show that.”

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This project was created through a journalism class at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies Department. This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club.