MIAMI.- How much calls to 911 have increased, how water and sewage consumption has increased, how the number of accidents in the city has grown, how many people use public transportation are some of the answers that the mayor of Hialeah wants to obtain in the days of informative workshops to establish the impact of the current immigration wave in the municipality and understand if it has sufficient resources to provide services to residents.
This Monday, February 26, the city of Hialeah began workshops to evaluate the impact that immigration is having on the municipality. The different departments participated in this first meeting where they presented the statistics they have collected in the last year.
“More than 400 thousand Cubans have arrived in recent years. We lack official data to know how many are in Hialeah. We can only infer that 75% of those who arrived end up in South Florida and half of them, due to family ties, end up in Hialeah,” said Mayor Esteban Bovo before opening the debate at the Workshop on the Impact of the Immigration in Hialeah.
The heads of the Fire and Police departments made it clear before making any statement that they are there to serve anyone in the city, whether documented or not.
“Yes, we can see that there is an increase in the population due to the number of accidents we have,” said George Fuente, head of the Municipal Police Department.
According to Fuente, the number of accidents recorded in the city increased by 5%, as well as the volume of calls to 911 which increased by 4% and the arrest of homeless people by 11%.
However, there are data that go down; In that period of time, the number of motorcycle accidents decreased by 18%, business robberies by 13%, and arrests for business robberies by 45%.
“We know that there is an increase in the number of residents. When you drive down the streets, you see more people in traffic, in stores, the parking lots are full.” Despite this, the police are capable of guaranteeing security in the city. “Among cities with large populations, Hialeah is one of the safest,” the officer said.
Regarding the importance of the event, he indicated, “If we can establish that there is an increase in people in our city, we will be able to seek aid from the federal and state governments to benefit our residents.”
For his part, Caleb Rodríguez from the Department of Construction and Codes explained the challenges his department faces. There is an increase in illegal construction, more immigrants are living in RVs, security violations have increased. “In 2023, 990 violations were recorded, equivalent to an increase of 29%.” The specialist indicated that other violations increased by 9.9%, such as animal husbandry, and car repairs and body shop workshops in residences by 6.6%. “Addressing the various irregularities increased the Department’s work time by 28.9%.”
“It is crucial to know the traffic data, the 911 calls, the people who are using the buses to be prepared. There are many people who come to live and work in our city. They use our streets, the services of our departments and we have to be ready to help them,” said Councilor Mónica Pérez present at the workshop.
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But the statistics shown by the different departments in the workshop did not always serve to demonstrate an increase in the population, because while the use of public transportation increased, there was a decrease in water consumption in the city.
The mayor believes that some technology companies can help establish the number of people who live in the city in a precise way.
When asked why a census is not used directly to establish the exact number of residents in the city, Mayor Bovo said:
“Many people don’t like sharing their data with the government. I have been involved in other censuses. I know our people. “They don’t want to participate in the census.”
“There are those who think that if we ask only the number of people living in a house, without asking other information such as income or education, people can participate. But we have to understand what data the census office is going to accept as official data.
Furthermore, if conducting an official census costs the city about five million dollars, we can’t do it because we don’t have that money.”
Despite this, the mayor wants to establish the number of residents to organize services and request more resources from federal and state governments if the increase that everyone says they feel is demonstrated.
The next workshop will be on March 11 and representatives from immigration services, county representatives and local churches will participate.
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