Letter to the editor:
In a letter dated December 28, 2023, Whitewater Police Chief Daniel Meyer and City Manager John Weidl asked President Biden for “assistance in obtaining resources” related to the “significant challenges the City of Whitewater faces related to ongoing demographic change.”
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. The letter stated that there are roughly 800 to 1,000 individuals who have arrived here in that period of time.
They wrote: “Our law enforcement staff has 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 City of Whitewater’s police chief and manager cite the problem as an “acute” immigration crisis that has led to a “critical humanitarian issue,” an explosion in unlicensed drivers, and a reduction in the overwhelmed police department’s ability to engage in proactive policing.
They wrote, “This is a critical humanitarian issue, and our city (Whitewater) needs government assistance in order to continue to serve our entire community properly.”
It may be noted that as a candidate for the Fort Atkinson City Council one year ago, I raised a concern with city staff that it was not a question of “if,” but a question of “when” we would experience the various logistical and law enforcement challenges resulting from a sudden and large change in our demographics, similar to those sudden shifts experienced by Whitewater and other communities.
It remains, as before, a matter of “when,” but also a question of “how” we are to address the challenges of a sudden demographic shift in our city. Our law enforcement, first responder and health care infrastructures will be tested further than they are now presently, and we already experience a housing shortage. What will we do? How will we handle this? It would be useful for city staff, and elected officials, to make clear to our public how the demographic shift will be managed. Hopefully, we will not approach a situation whereby the terms of city ordinance Chapter 28 would be engaged, but the discussion needs to start now, and in a spirit of well-ordered and transparent governance.
John Donohue,
Fort Atkinson
File photo/Kim McDarison
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