On Tuesday, Congressman Bradley Byrne’s office announced that the federal government has no plans to house illegal immigrants at Naval airfields in Silverhill and Josephine.
“Housing illegal immigrants at ill-equipped airfields along the Gulf Coast was always a terrible idea, so I appreciate the confirmation that this plan is no longer being considered,” Byrne said. “We had a team effort to push back this flawed idea, and I especially want to thank Baldwin County Commissioners Chris Elliott and Tucker Dorsey and Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack for their advocacy on this issue.”
A letter from the Department of Homeland Security said a facility in Texas would be a better fit for the possible housing of the immigrants.
“DOD (Department of Defense) has offered space at Fort Bliss, Texas, which could accommodate approximately 4,000 beds, and also offered two unspecified sites that could accommodate approximately 4,000 beds at each site,” the letter said. “At this time, ICE does not have plans to acquire additional bed space in Alabama.”
Byrne hosted Mack, Elliott and Dorsey in Washington earlier this year to speak with federal officials about the potential immigrant relocation, telling those officials the sites were thoroughly unsuitable to house a projected thousands of immigrants that could be coming to the sites. Byrne also joined other members of the Alabama and Florida Congressional delegations in sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Mattis and Secretary of Homeland Security Nielson outlining concerns with the proposal.
“While I am glad this issue is resolved, we must continue working to secure the border and eliminate the need for additional housing for illegal immigrants altogether,” Byrne said. “I remain 100 percent committed to working with President Trump to build a border wall, hire additional border patrol officers, and ensure our border security is as strong as possible.”
Elliott said he and other local officials were happy to hear the news out of Washington.
“It’s fantastic news,” Elliott said. “I just can’t say how thrilled I am with that. It was something that had a lot of our citizens here in Baldwin County very concerned and with very good reason. The cooperation from Congressman Byrne’s office and Senator Shelby’s office was amazing on this, and being able to go up there and make the case directly to the Department of Defense as to why this was a bad location, laying out the quantitative reasons why this wasn’t the right location - it was incredibly helpful.”
Elliott said the commission and other local leaders like Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon are looking for ways to take those sites out of contention in future discussions by possibly buying the airfields from the Navy.
“We’re out of it for now again, but we’ve seen this before,” Elliott said. “Now, the solution becomes purchasing those properties. The Navy is not using them, so we’re hoping it’s time for the Navy to let go of these properties and we’re happy to purchase them at fair market value.”
Elliott said the county would try to purchase the Silverhill site and that Kennon and the Orange Beach council had been approached about making an offer on the Josephine site.
