Wisconsin’s congressional delegation is protesting illegal immigration

Wisconsin House Republicans held a field hearing in Milwaukee on Thursday to discuss the U.S.-Mexico border, blaming a host of problems like fentanyl and crime on migrants, despite research to the contrary.

The hearing focused on three issues repeatedly raised by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, during their campaign: crime, fentanyl, and required local resources.

Lawmakers and speakers at the hearing blamed illegal immigration and the “open border” for the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., declining school performance in the town of Whitewater and domestic violence, among other things.

Among those invited to testify at the House Judiciary Committee hearing are Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt and Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney., but there are no experts on immigration or domestic violence, despite the focus of the audience.

At one point, Rep. Glenn Grothman asked Schmidt and Toney if “drunk driving” and “sex with minors” are not taken as seriously in other cultures as compared to “native” Americans.

Schmidt and Toney did not directly answer the questions, but Schmidt said there may be “an aspect of it” in terms of drunk driving, and Toney said people who come to the U.S. illegally “don’t look at what are our laws before we come here” regarding the age of consent.

Several studies, including one by the National Institute of Justice published last monthshows that undocumented immigrants are arrested for violent crimes, drug crimes, and traffic offenses at lower rates than native citizens.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, co-founder and executive director of Voces de la Frontera, said truthful information about immigrants has often been stifled by unsubstantiated claims made by Trump and his supporters.

“They use fearmongering and xenophobia as a political campaign and really spread hatred,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “They take one example and generalize to an entire population and really treat the entire population in a way that dehumanizes everyone.”

Research shows that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes

Part of the hearing focused on a case in Prairie du Chien where police said: a man affiliated with a transnational gang attacked a woman and her daughter.

The case was repeatedly discussed by Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde and Representative Derrick Van Orden, who attended the hearing, in their campaigns.

Police said the event was not a random event and that one of the victims was an acquaintance of the suspect and brought him to Prairie du Chien in Madison. The suspect was charged with domestic violence offenses.

Research shows that gender-based violence usually occurs between people who know each other, rather than randomly.

Intimate partner violence is a multifaceted health problem affected by many interrelated risk factors, including income, employment, education, neighborhood safety, generational trauma, culture, and gender roles.

It is true that immigrant women are particularly vulnerable to domestic violence. They may refrain from calling the police because of their legal status, language skills, lack of knowledge about US legal systems or cultural norms that discourage speaking up, according to a study from The legal moment.

Compared to US-born citizens and documented immigrants, the study from National Institute for Justice found that undocumented immigrants were the least likely group to commit crimes, including violent crimes.

The studyusing Texas arrest records, found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born citizens for violent and drug crimes and at one-quarter the rate of citizens for property crimes.

According to the study, undocumented immigrants’ crime rates were consistently lower than both native-born citizens and documented immigrants for homicide, assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, theft and arson.

Fentanyl overdoses are on the rise, but the drug is mostly brought in by citizens

Lawmakers and speakers also expressed concern about fentanyl overdoses on the rise in Wisconsin and the U.S.

From 2019 to 2021, the number of people who died of fentanyl overdoses in Wisconsin increased from 651 to 1,280, according to the state Department of Health.

Rick Rachwal of Pewaukee, whose son Logan he passed away from the fentanyl poisoning in 2022, told the committee he was concerned about the lack of knowledge about the flow of fentanyl in the US. direct effect.”

However, data from the Department of Homeland Security shows that more than 90% of illegal fentanyl seized in 2024 was smuggled into vehicles driven by US citizens.

In 2021, data from the United States Sentencing Commission showed that more than 80% of the people with fentanyl seized at the ports were US citizens.

In a statement, Wisconsin Democratic Coordinated Campaign Rapid Response Director Kristi Johnston said Trump and Republicans “would rather solve a problem than solve it.”

She said the Republicans did it issued a bipartisan border bill earlier this year, it would have expanded efforts to detain migrants and raised the threshold for asylum claims.

“Vice President Harris is the only candidate in the race who will take action and pass the same bill to curb the flow of fentanyl and secure the border,” Johnston said.

Whitewater schools are pooling more resources to help migrant children

Former Whitewater school board member Henri Kinson testified that suddenly the arrival of migrants in the college town of Whitewater accompanied school resources, leading to poorer academic performance.

Kinson blamed students whose first language is not English and who need help interpreting.

Whitewater is one of several cities in the US that have migrants seeking political asylum or better economic opportunities collected in recent yearsinterested in finding a well-paid job.

“The impact the Biden-Harris administration is having in Whitewater is really just one example of the horrific impact the policies are having in our state and our country,” Rep. Bryan Steil said in response to Kinson’s testimony.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporting showed that while the increase in migrants in much of Nicaragua presented challenges initially, such as the need to expand English language learning resources for students, the city was on hand to adapt.

The police invested in interpreting software, the school district hired more Spanish-speaking staff, and the library got a grant to translate key brochures into Spanish.

Despite Trump’s talking points about immigrants taking resources away from citizens, research shows that immigration is generally positive for the economy.

In 2022, undocumented immigrants in Wisconsin paid up nearly $200 million in taxes.

Nationally, undocumented immigrants alone contributed nearly $100 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022, according to Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy. Each undocumented immigrant paid an average of nearly $9,000 in federal, state and local taxes that year.

More: Farmers, factories, at the center of the immigration debate. Trump has promised mass deportations.

Despite paying high taxes, undocumented immigrants are denied access to the programs they contribute to, including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment.

Studies have also shown that immigrants fill parts of the labor market where there are not enough American workers.

Neumann-Ortiz believes that the discussions at the hearing do not offer real solutions for the current immigration system.

“It continues to promote misinformation, hate and provides no meaningful solutions to the issues at hand,” she said. “Undocumented immigrants are not the ones to be targeted.”

Eva Wen is a data reporter in the investigative team. Contact her at [email protected].

Sophie Carson is a general reporter covering religion and faith, immigrants and refugees, and more. Contact her at [email protected].