A small village near Cincinnati, Ohio, is suffering from an influx of illegal Mauritanian immigrants, with authorities warning that it faces economic shortages and its quality of life is affected as a result.
“If you look at 2021 and 2022, there was a huge influx of immigrants from Mauritania into the United States. For some reason, a significant number landed in Rockland,” said Dou, Rockland Village Administrator. Wehmeyer told FOX News Digital.
More than 15,000 Mauritanian residents came to the United States last year, a 2,800% increase from 2022, when only 543 people came to the United States, according to a Washington Post analysis in June. Rockland, a village of about 3,500 people in southwestern Ohio, is seeing a large number of people arriving. The Post reported that 2,700 people settled in Ohio in 2023, with about half moving to nearby Cincinnati.
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Migrants from Mauritania wait to be processed by U.S. border officials after spending the night in the desert in Lukeville, Arizona, on December 5, 2023. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Wehmeyer said at least two nearby apartment complexes are fully occupied. Each apartment must house four people, and authorities say each room can accommodate up to 12 people.
“If you own an apartment building…say, 80 units with four people per unit, or about 320 people, if that population were to double or even triple, the building system would It’s not designed for that.”
“So when you use your utility bill, it’s going to back up. There have been instances where when people go to take a shower, feces from upstairs comes pouring down the drain and filling the bathtub. Maybe. , which is made worse by cooking.” The method they use is a process that uses a lot of grease. ”
He also pointed out that a building designed to hold 320 people could potentially hold far more people, but it also ran the risk of not having adequate exits, which could be difficult in the event of a fire. said there were problems getting people out of the building.
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Border Patrol agents pick up a group of asylum seekers from a relief camp on the U.S.-Mexico border near Sasabe, Arizona, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Justin Hummel/Getty Images)
He also noted the economic burden it places on small communities. Undocumented immigrants who apply for asylum may not be able to work immediately, and even if they do, it may take months before they are eligible for a work permit.
“So most immigrants in Rockland can’t work, and if they can’t work, they can’t pay taxes,” he says. “And they essentially kicked out the tax residents of these 200 apartments and filled them with non-tax residents. We lost about $125,000 to $150,000 in revenue because of that. ”
He said the village requested assistance from the Legislature’s office and met with state legislators, the governor’s office, and several legislative offices. He said Rockland is seeking financial assistance to recoup the economic losses the village is facing, but he believes progress is being made.
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“I don’t know how they found our little village. We like it. We think it’s a great place to live, but the quality of life here has definitely been affected by this problem. “I’m receiving it,” he said.
Rockland’s struggles echo those of other towns and cities across the country experiencing large influxes of immigrants. Towns such as Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania have seen large increases in the number of Haitian immigrants. Meanwhile, cities like Chicago and New York are speaking out about the strain on their cities from the hundreds of thousands of migrants pouring across their borders.
Meanwhile, immigration has become a top issue for voters heading into the 2024 election, with many polls showing former President Donald Trump with a wide lead over Vice President Kamala Harris when it comes to handling the issue. It has been shown that
Adam Shaw is a political reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.
Contact him at adam.shaw2@fox.com or at: Twitter.
