EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – Stephanie Hirsch remembers growing up in the western Wisconsin city of Eau Claire when the community welcomed newly arriving Hmong refugees from Southeast Asia.

So Hirsch, now the Eau Claire city manager, said she was surprised at the hostility, fear, and anger she saw last fall when residents learned several dozen refugees would start arriving legally in the community of about 70,000. Opponents spread misinformation — including on a billboard — about how many people were coming and from where, and people packed a city meeting to protest the resettlements.

“It’s very hard for me to understand that fear,” Hirsch said. “I completely disagree with being afraid of people from different cultures. In fact, I’m really excited about it.”

But the way lifelong Eau Claire resident Fred Kappus saw it, the city should have other priorities.

“We really should attend to the homelessness situation before we bring in people from elsewhere,” said Kappus, the vice chairman of the Eau Claire Republican Party.

The flaring tension over the resettlement of refugees in Eau Claire has been repeated in many other midsize communities across the U.S. And it serves as a backdrop to a campaign rally Tuesday with Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, who has focused on immigration and anti-immigrant rhetoric as he and former President Donald Trump campaign.

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Eau Claire, the fastest-growing city in the northern half of Wisconsin, is attracting people from all over, including small towns and big cities, people escaping warmer climates, and those from other countries, Hirsch said.

“We’re happy to have people come to the community whether they are refugees from the Congo or a candidate for vice president,” she said. “We want to be a community that’s welcoming.”

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Spagat reported from San Diego.