SARASOTA, Fla. — A workshop on the local impacts of illegal immigration is drawing controversy in another Tampa Bay-area county.
At the request of Sarasota County Commissioners, some law enforcement leaders gave presentations about the issue. The workshop was similar to that held in Manatee County in April, and several Sarasota County residents rose to speak out against it.
The workshop, which discussed the cost of illegal immigration to the county, saw presentations and statements from the sheriff and the state attorney.
Critics have decried the meeting and said it was aimed at blaming the immigrant population for draining local resources.
Some civic groups held a rally ahead of the meeting Friday, but during the presentations, speakers highlighted financial impacts including crime, human trafficking and the inflow of illegal drugs.
"I have heard you say this before that we are a border county even though we're not attached to a specific country. Those products and fentanyl are coming into our community and that's definitely a concern," Neil Rainford, a Sarasota County commissioner, said.
The featured speakers also talked about other public health and safety issues like overdosing.
"We treat those as homicides, we send our forensics units out, we document, we send detectives out, they do follow-ups. A lot of times our undercover group will try to go find the dealer that supplied that fentanyl," Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Huffman said.
So far this year, Sarasota County recorded $176,000 in costs to remove 30 illegal immigrants who committed a crime. According to Huffman, it cost $378,000 to remove nearly 60 last year.
"Recently we had an individual that we stopped for a DUI. We found a lot of weapons some semi-automatic, weapons, and cash in the car and that person was deemed to have come into the country illegally twice before. Homeland Security investigations took that case and obviously removed them," Huffman added.
Jurisdictional and processing challenges were also highlighted.
"When we go into court, we have no authority to ask for someone to be deported or for the court to institute a hold. We simply do not have that authority in state court," Sarasota County State Attorney Ed Brodsky said.
However, there was no statistical indication specifically pointing to illegal immigration as a contributing factor that is driving up crime overall in the community.
Several residents expressed their opinions on the issue. Some were in support of the workshop and curbing illegal immigration's impacts on local budgets and taxpayer dollars.
"We need immigrants. Yes, we do need them. We need them, but we need them legally and there is something called a work permit," one woman said.
Many more others spoke against the workshop, calling it a divisive political stunt that's distracting from the real problems like childcare and housing.
"You have thousands of families that are living out of a food bank. What are you doing about that?" one speaker asked.
"You are creating a false issue and vilifying a group of people who can't even represent themselves," another speaker said.
"America first means your citizens can eat and afford to live here, but you don't care about that instead you want to attack people who stimulate the economy," Sarah Parker, the president of Women's Voices of SW Florida, said.
"You concluded your budget session with a workshop that is just to slander immigrants in this county when we are all impacted by what undocumented immigrants contribute to Sarasota County," a resident added.
Commissioners said the purpose of the workshop is to be proactive about potential problems illegal immigration can cause in the community and ways to tailor the county's budget to better address matters that are within their power.