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SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. -- A Santa Rosa County commissioner is attempting to send a strong message through a new resolution that "illegal aliens" are not welcome there.

It's proposed by commissioner James Calkins, who says he does support legal immigration. However, because of public safety issues caused by illegal immigrants, he says something needs to be done.

"I have gotten multiple, multiple messages, calls on what a problem this is starting to become in Santa Rosa County," Calkins said Thursday. "There have been car accidents, there has been crimes committed. It has just been a disaster."

The Pew Research Center says Florida was one of six states with the largest unauthorized immigrant populations at 900,000.

Calkins is pointing the finger at the Biden administration's immigration policies.

The resolution states, "the safety and security of the citizens of Santa Rosa County is of utmost importance and illegal immigration poses significant challenges to public safety, public health, and the economic well being of the community."

Calkins is hopeful the resolution will pass on Monday.

Grace Resendez McCaffery is the editor of Latino Media Gulf Coast and La Costa Latina Publication.

"With verbiage like this, with policies that look like this, with public conversations with this type of sentiment, it really does make for a dangerous situation that I don't know if anybody accounts for or cares about," she said. "I know I do."

"But to make a blanket statement that people just aren't welcome, it speaks volumes -- and it doesn't only affect undocumented immigrants," Resendez McCaffery said.

She fears that if this resolution passes, it could lead to people with bad intentions taking measures into their own hands to get rid of illegal immigrants. She gave an example from a 2019 mass shooting.

"I am originally from El Paso, Texas, where the Walmart shooting occurred," Resendez McCaffery said. "That was my neighborhood. Twenty-three people were killed in that store. Some of my classmates families were very affected by this. I had a classmate that worked in that store. I had another classmate who's uncle was killed and nobody could understand why. Nobody could make sense of it, and it comes back to talks like this. Conversations like this that really aren't conversations -- they're incitements against people that look like me."

Calkins says that would be illegal, unacceptable and wrong.

"Illegal means illegal," he said. "I would tell anybody that would try to use anything for wrong reasons that they will deal with law enforcement and law enforcement will not tolerate any illegal activity."

Resendez McCaffery questions if only illegal immigrants from south of the boarder are not welcome.

"If you don't look like me are you going to be questioned?" she said. "If you're from another country other than Latin America will you be questioned? Am I still going to be able to speak Spanish in Santa Rosa County or will that become a reason for people to look at me a certain way and make me feel unwelcomed, let me know that I'm unwelcomed?"

"It doesn't matter what race they are, color of their skin, any of that," Calkins says. "What matters is if they follow the law and that we welcome the legal immigrants. We welcome folks that wanna come here and contribute to our society, that don't commit crimes."

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Calkins wants to pass resolution banning 'illegal aliens' from Santa Rosa County - WEAR