Northwoods’ congressman says rural Wisconsin double murder brings border crisis home

(The Center Square) – There continue to be some unanswered questions about a double murder in rural northwestern Wisconsin, but one of the state’s congressmen says who is responsible is not one of those questions.

Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany says the murder of two young girls by their father, who came into this country illegally, is making the border crisis real for people in his area of the state.

“Every state is a border state," Tiffany said Monday.

Colby-Abbotsford Police arrested Victor Manuel Gomez Acosta last week after investigators say he stabbed his two daughters to death, stabbed his wife nearly to death and then stabbed himself. Prosecutors say he stabbed one of his daughters 16 times and the other 20 times.

Gomez Acosta is originally from Mexico. Officials say he entered the country illegally. He came into the U.S. in 2016 in Laredo, Texas.

Tiffany said illegal immigration, and its impacts, are being felt even in small towns like Abbotsford.

“I believe the police chief in Colby said that he can't get ICE to come out anymore to remove these people,” Tiffany told The Center Square. “[Immigration] has harmed their ability to do their job as they have traditionally done it. And now they have to dedicate so many resources to it.”

Tiffany said the double murder comes after another northern Wisconsin man was killed in a crash where the other driver was allegedly in the country illegally.

He said voters, in both Wisconsin and across the country, are starting to see the border crisis. And Tiffany said they don’t like it.

“If you look at polling, the polling is really moving in the direction now that people want deportations,” Tiffany added. “I mean we're seeing over 50% of people now want deportations and you never saw that previously. So, I think it is burning in with the American public…for a swath of people in America they are now saying enough is enough.”

Gomez Acosta is facing two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree homicide. He is being held on $1 million bond.