Biden Refugees Threaten to Make Small-Town Wisconsin the Next Minneapolis

Chippewa tries to stop the flow, but Biden keeps the flood gates open.

In October, Restoration News broke the story of nearly 3,000 refugees from war-torn countries like Somalia pouring into Eau Claire and other parts of rural Wisconsin, courtesy of Joe Biden and the liberal NGO World Relief.

Now local residents are pushing back against his out-of-control immigration policy.

The Chippewa County board recently passed a resolution requesting a pause on refugee resettlement, but the Biden administration doesn’t care. World Relief Wisconsin confirmed it has already placed 21 refugees from the Congo, Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—failed war-torn nations like Somalia—into the Chippewa Valley. World Relief expects 54 more refugees but admits they don’t even know where these people will come from.

St Croix is one of the towns that could soon be inundated by these refugees, and the county is taking action. On March 12, the county board of supervisors passed 3 resolutions on calling for state and federal legislation that would give more local control of refugee placement. Another resolution called for a pause on all refugee resettlement.

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Flooding the Badger State

As we previously reported, the Refugee Act of 1980 caps the number of refugees to 50,000 per year but permits the president to exceed that number “if at the beginning of a fiscal year and after appropriate consultation, he determines it to be for humanitarian purposes.” The “Reception and Placement of Refugees” program further requires regular consultation with state and local governments.

Biden clearly doesn’t care about consultation, which is why he continues to place refugees into small town America without giving local officials a say in the process. In Wisconsin, he blatantly ignored the local authorities who requested a pause on resettlement. Biden has no regard for how this influx of people takes away resources from hard-working Americans. Nor is he the first.

In 2015, President Obama permitted 70,000 refugees to be admitted into the U.S; in 2019, President Trump reduced the cap to 30,000 over security concerns. In 2024, Biden increased the number to 125,000.

Those numbers are only the beginning—by law, refugees can petition to bring their relatives here once they arrive on American soil, ballooning their potential number by thousands.

The federal government gives these NGOs a small amount of seed money to resettle the refugees, but then local taxpayers must cover the cost to feed, shelter, and provider services to them indefinitely.

Wisconsiners are caring and giving folks, but why should they bear the burden of decisions—and unfunded mandates—made by the federal government? Refugees threaten to strain the resources of small-town communities that are already struggling to provide for their own residents.

Then there’s the threat to the local culture. Minneapolis has seen a massive influx of Somalis through the refugee resettlement process, with an estimated 90,000 now living in the city. Parts of Minneapolis are known as “little Mogadishu,” in reference to the war-torn city in Somalia. In 2018, there was a 50 percent increase in violent crime in Minneapolis due to a rise of Somali gang activity and the city has become known as the “terrorist recruitment capital of the world.”

Yet Biden Democrats continue to push more refugees into communities who aren’t prepared for them.

Wisconsin Republican Reps. Tom Tiffany and Derrick Van Orden want to help solve the problem. They have proposed new legislation—the Community Assent for Refugee Entry (CARE) Act—that will allow localities to have the final say on whether refuges can be placed in their community.

Restoration News reached out to Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s office for comment on the proposed legislation but received no response.

Unfunded Mandates Strain Local Governments

Rep. Tiffany’s legislation can’t come soon enough.

The Chippewa Falls School Board is already financially strained and asking the community for more funding for its operating budget. Voters will decide on April 2nd if the school district should receive an additional $7.5 million—paid for by local tax increases—to avoid operational cuts that will negatively impact children.

Since refugees are permitted to bring family members to join them, the 75 refugees dumped into Chippewa this year could balloon into the thousands (nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins). Locals will bear the brunt of the costs and can be expect more tax increases will be on the horizon. Biden’s unfunded mandates are hurting everyday Americans across the nation.

Not only are taxpayers in the United States footing the bill for refugees in our own country, but the United States Department of State is also funding a Canadian refugee organization called WUSC. Biden needs to stop sending money to Canada and focus on helping struggling communities like Chippewa.

Will Democrats support the efforts to let localities decide and approve the CARE Act, or will they continue their heavy-handed, burdensome approach to refugee placement? If something isn’t done now, Chippewa will soon become unrecognizable.

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