FAIRHOPE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — Political rhetoric, is what Fairhope City Councilman Corey Martin calls an article published last week on a conservative website focusing on issues in Alabama that have folks stirred up about an influx of refugees or illegal immigrants into their city.
He says it’s not true.
“It posed the image as if I signed something for illegal immigrants to come into our area, to our school systems, on our resources and it wasn’t true,” said Martin.
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Martin says he did sign a letter of support for the United States Refugee Admissions Program that started during the Reagan administration but he signed the letter in 2022.
“At that time Ukraine was just bombed, Ukraine was just invaded and what I’m seeing on TV is women and children and elderly being displaced, murdered, and killed and this is when this came across my desk and I thought this was the right thing to do.”
Martin says bringing illegal immigrants or refugees to the area was never his intent but says he understands how people could be confused after reading the online article. “They are trusting the information that they are reading and there were just some facts that were left out, some content, some important facts.”