Commissioner: Illegal Immigrants Costing Too Much
NBC-2 (Fort Myers, Florida), June 19, 2007
One Collier County Commissioner says illegal immigrants are costing taxpayers around $70 million a year. But he says he has a unique plan to put a stop to it.
From the classrooms to the emergency rooms, commissioner Fred Coyle says the cost of illegal immigrants is weighing down Collier residents.
“They can’t pay for their services, so we have to pay for those,” said Coyle. “Those who come here illegally, in my opinion, are not welcome. They put an inordinate burden on our economy and it should not be tolerated.”
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“If our state and federal government would do their jobs, we wouldn’t have this additional expense of $70 million every year in Collier County,” said Coyle.
Coyle has teamed up with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and several other organizations to form a task force designed to tackle the illegal immigrant problem in the county.
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Another place that Coyle says has been hit hard by illegal immigrants is the Collier County Jail.
Coyle said it costs taxpayers an extra $9 million a year to house illegal immigrants.
