The Athens City Council and mayor released a statement Wednesday addressing citizens' complaints over rising immigration.
Like many other cities in north Alabama, Athens has reportedly seen a rise in Haitian immigration, which has caused residents to ask local and state leadership to take action.
“While this City is a welcoming place to all persons, any influx of newcomers can pose challenges to the delivery of local services,” the statement said. “At this point, the City understands that the number of new enrollments in the school system is minimal, and there has not been a noticeable increase in the municipal court docket.”
The council and mayor said they contacted federal agencies, including the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and were told the new immigrants from Haiti came with federal work permits and were here working legally.
The City said it was not involved in attracting immigrants to the area or with any incentive programs to do so.
Some Athens residents had accused Councilman Chris Seibert of benefitting from immigrants through his residential rental business. He denied those claims Wednesday on Huntsville WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.”
“I don't get any private subsidies from the companies that I'm assuming have brought a lot of these people here," Seibert said. "I don't get any federal subsidies from any of them. They're just like any other tenant. They have legal documentation… I'm unaware of anybody receiving any subsidies.”
Seibert said he couldn’t discriminate against potential tenants who provided the proper documentation in their rental application. He said each property is checked monthly for code and other violations. Regarding school resources, he reiterated the low enrollment rate and said many Haitian immigrants arrive having received more than the required battery of medical vaccines.
“This is from the superintendent. They've [Haitian immigrants] actually showed up with vaccine cards with more vaccines than our school system requires. So they send them down to the health department. They have to be translated, obviously, but they actually, the ones that have shown up in our school system, have more vaccines than our kids are required to have.”
Athens officials said it would continue to ensure its residents, immigrant or otherwise, followed all the city’s laws, but there was little it could do about immigration in general as long as the federal government maintained jurisdiction.
“As everyone knows, the federal government has assumed control of all immigration matters, including who receives a federal work permit,” the statement continued. “City and local governments, like the Athens City Council and the Limestone County Commission, aren’t allowed to have any control over those issues, even when federal immigration policy has negative impacts on the local level. What the City and Police Department can do — and will continue to do is to work to ensure that all folks in our community — including newcomers — obey the laws of the land. This City is not a ‘sanctuary city’ and its police department works closely with ICE.”
Read the City's full statement below:
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