Illegal Immigrants Increase County Tax Burden

March 27, 2007

NewsChannel 19's Ellis Eskew reports

Illegal immigration; it's a hot topic that stirs up residents like Mike Bucklin.

He lives just down the street from where the shooting and stabbings broke out at a local soccer field Monday.

"We need to do something definitely about illegal immigrants," said resident Mike Bucklin. "Especially when they are creating hazards like this in neighborhoods. I got a real big issue with that."

Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks says illegal aliens place a huge burden on the county and individual tax payers.

"Our costs, taxpayer costs," said County Commissioner Mo Brooks, "are going up because illegal aliens are coming in unrestrained because of federal government dereliction of duty."

He says there are 50 illegal aliens at any given time in the county jail. The Madison County jail is overcrowded. Many of the inmates are shipped off to Limestone County. All medical bills and costly defense attorney fees are all paid by Madison County taxpayers.

"Right now," said Brooks, "it's costing roughly 1.2 million dollars per year from the pockets of Madison County citizens to house 50 illegal aliens given the going rate, what we are contracting with Limestone County, is 64 dollars a day."

Brooks says that takes away from what the tax money could go towards.

"We want better roads, but we are having to spend money on illegal aliens," said Brooks. "We want better schools, we are having to spend money on illegal aliens. We need to take care of this problem on the local, state, and federal level so our tax payer dollars can be better utilized for things taxpayers want them spent on."

That's an issue Mike Bucklin says he wants resolved.

"Yeah, it's a big concern," said Bucklin.

Brooks says there is very little action the county can take locally on the illegal immigrant issue.

If you are concerned about it, he encourages you to contact your state senators and congressmen to help get legislation passed on illegal immigration.

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