BRADENTON, Fla. — A lot of people are moving into the Tampa Bay area including undocumented immigrants and all of that population increase has added undue pressure onto our systems.
In Manatee County, commissioners held a special meeting with presentations from staff of various departments and agencies.
Describing it as a fact-finding process, they said their goal of calling for the meeting was to discuss and get insight into the impacts of illegal immigration and understand its effect on local resources and taxpayers' dollars.
County commissioners were presented with data illustrating various related constraints on healthcare, education social services and even law enforcement.
"Make no mistake about it, Fentanyl in Manatee County comes from the cartel. The Mexican cartel across the border and then the dealers are of every race, Black, White, you name it," said Sheriff Rick Wells, Manatee County.
Along with learning the impacts, including crime reporting and law enforcement investigations, county leaders also found out many undocumented individuals are subject to other vulnerabilities.
"They don't use banks, they carry whole large sums of money on their person or at the residence so we have seen several crimes against them throughout the years, and throughout my entire career with them being victimized because of that reason," Sheriff Wells said.
Wells also pointed out that because of the fear of deportation, victims and witnesses of domestic violence, human trafficking and other serious crimes are less likely to report to authorities or come forward to assist with getting their assailant apprehended.
Some frustration was also expressed over legally mandated 48-hour hold restrictions for processing ICE pick-ups. They said it doesn't allow for adequate time to communicate with ICE and cross-reference the various databases needed before releasing the individuals back into the community once they meet the bail conditions. Other restrictive jurisdictional issues linked to federal immigration laws were also a sore point for the area's top prosecutor.
"They may have been given notices to appear, they have been released or where they're seeking asylum or several other things so definitively that we don't know," said Ed Brodsky, State Attorney, 12th Judicial Circuit.
School district leaders showed the need for more ESL teachers for growing Spanish and Creole-speaking students. Staff overseeing emergency management and the social services department also expressed a similar need for translators.
Manatee Memorial CEO also showed a $15.2 million cost to that system in providing care to undocumented residents.
County Leaders its overwhelming for both public and private health services.
"Being that Manatee Memorial is a privately run hospital, it does handcuff us on what we can do in terms of taxpayer so we've got to figure out a way to work with the medical system," said Michael Rahn, District 4 Commissioner, Manatee County Board of Commissioners.
"I want to see less burden on our system and we want the ability to be able to collect data so I know who is here and what services do they need and what is it truly costing taxpayers," said Kevin Van Ostenbridge, District 4 Commissioner, Manatee County Board of Commissioners.
Commissioners insist the purpose of calling for the reports from the various departments was to keep the community safe.
"What we want to keep out of here is the fentanyl, the illegal drug use, sex trafficking crimes, and those sort of things we want to keep those out of Manatee county," said Rahn.
County commissioners say they will take the data and problems raised into consideration and come up with local policies and plans to help tackle the specific issues.