Behind the City of Whitewater’s Immigration Letter

In January, the small city of Whitewater made headlines, being pulled into the national debate about immigration. This came after Whitewater Police Chief Dan Meyer and City Manager John Weidl sent a letter to several federal and state officials in December requesting additional resources to respond to population change from an influx of Nicaraguan and Venezuelan immigrants. Police Chief Meyer defends sending the letter, saying that the issue is real, and unique to the City of Whitewater.

“It is a sensitive topic, it is a very politically divisive topic,” said Meyer. “No matter how you explain this stuff, there are people on either side that are upset about one aspect or the other.”

Meyer believes that the COVID-19 pandemic played a significant part in contributing to this population increase. Typically, Whitewater has a proportionally large student population due to the UW-Whitewater campus on the northwest side of the city. During the pandemic, however, Meyer explained that classes were moved to online. “A lot of the off-campus housing that is typically taken up by students was either vacated or changed in some manner,” he said. “So what happened, and a lot of this has come first hand from a lot of the people that came here, is there were a couple of families that came here from Nicaragua in like 2020.”

After that, he said that some of these families sponsored other family members, leading to a current population of 800 to 1,000 Nicaraguan and Venezuelan immigrants, according to the city’s estimates.

Unlicensed Drivers

One of the impacts Meyer focused on was traffic enforcement. While DUI incidents have decreased, he argues that this is likely because officer-initiated traffic stops have also decreased due to being burdened by other issues. Unlike 19 states, Wisconsin state law does not allow any way for undocumented individuals to get a drivers licence. “Not having that option here, we’re seeing a ton of unlicensed drivers,” Meyers said. The city issued 282 citations for unlicensed driving in 2023, compared to only 94 in 2020. 

He says that the difficulty in identifying undocumented individuals has greatly complicated the system. “We’ll have people we’ve had contact with three or four times, and every single time they’ve given us a different name, so once we finally do truly identify them, I cannot even tell you how many hours of work it is on the back-end correcting everything.”

Housing

Another impact is on housing, where Meyer said he has seen many cases of families and unrelated individuals living in overcrowded conditions. “We would have 14, 15, 16 people in an apartment intended for four,” he said. 

He talked about the dangers of living in such cramped conditions. “The problem with that is that a lot of the times it was non-familiar living conditions, so you’d have young girls that were living with non-related men, and you’d have situations of sexual assaults and things that come from that…just not a good situation,” Meyer explained.

He remembered one case from 2022 where a family of three, including a 2-year-old, were found living in a 10×10 shed in negative 10 degree January weather. “There was a space heater,” he said. “But obviously not safe, and you’re not going to be able to heat that up long term.”

Unexpected costs associated with the translation service Propio have also increased over the last few years for the department, increasing from only $382 in 2020 to $5,969 in 2023. The department has budgeted $10,000 for 2024. While this service can greatly help communication in many cases, Meyer says it also has its weaknesses. “If we’re out on the road, and we have a high-risk traffic stop, that doesn’t work. We still have to get our point across to you…and having a translator on the phone is not going to do that.”

“None of this stuff that we are talking about is intended to be divisive,” Meyer said. “It’s not denigrating a specific group of people; it is just factual information about what we’re seeing and the trends we’re seeing.”

Responses

Many Wisconsin lawmakers have since responded to the City of Whitewater’s letter, and from both political parties are calls to increase assistance to places like Whitewater.

In a Jan. 17 press release, US Senator Tammy Baldwin wrote to the Biden Administration, saying “Addressing this crisis requires leadership, and as part of your Administration’s response, I urge you to ensure that adequate resources and support are available to towns and cities across Wisconsin to keep our communities healthy and safe for all.”

US Representative Bryan Steil (WI-01) also commented, saying “The safety of families and children in Whitewater is my priority. The illegal activity in our community caused by the border crisis is why I’m working to force the Biden administration to change course and implement policies that will secure the border.”

---

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.