Coming up on Southwest Florida In Focus.

Will changes to the homestead exemption save you money on your tax bill?

Find out what the passing of amendment five means for homeowners.

And president elect Donald Trump has promised a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

We hear from an immigration judge about how this might impact the current backlog of immigration cases.

That's coming up next on WGCU.

You're watching Southwest Florida In Focus.

Coming up, an estimated 11 million people are undocumented in the United States.

Today, we look at how the crisis in the immigration courts impacts our local community.

And one man living right here in southwest Florida.

Inflation made its way to the ballot in the form of amendment five.

Voters said yes to a change on the homestead exemption.

We'll look at how it will impact property tax bills and how much homeowners can expect to save.

Plus, we take you to an inaugural celebration of Romanian culture in Fort Myers.

WGCU brings you to a fall festival celebrating Eastern European food, dance and more.

Hello I'm Sandra Viktorova.

Thank you so much for joining us.

President elect Donald Trump has promised a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

How the incoming Trump administration would deport anywhere close to the 11 million people estimated to be undocumented in the country is still unclear.

For the undocumented people living in this country now, uncertainty about the future is nothing new.

A years long backlog of cases in our immigration courts means people wait years to find out whether they'll be able to stay here permanently.

Today, we look at how the crisis in the immigration courts impacts our local community.

Jose says his journey to an American life these last five years has been full of difficult moments.

The Honduran citizen, who now lives in Lehigh Acres, asks that we not reveal his identity because he's a victim of domestic violence.

I sleep one night in my car because I don't have any family here, and I sleep in my car.

I don't have any money to rent a hotel or to buy a food.

Jose made the journey to the US via Mexico, crossing the Rio Grande with the financial help of his ex-partner, a U.S. resident who he says he loved.

He dreamed of building a family together in southwest Florida and finding success.

I want to make my own business.

Jose says he came to the U.S. for several reasons he dreams of bringing his parents too.

He wants to protect them from the ongoing threat of gangs who demand extortion money from them.

If you don't pay it, they can kill you.

You.

They can kill you or your family, or they can rob you.

His attorney, Ricardo Skerrett, says it's likely Jose will be able to legally remain in this country because his case is solid.

There's evidence proving he was physically abused by his ex-partner in the U.S., but figuring out how to survive while Jose waits for a permit so he can legally work here isn't easy.

The person has been about three years without a work permit.

How does it how does the Immigration Service expect that person to survive for three years without working in the United States?

Jose, like millions of others, works illegally now in an office before that, on a construction site, at a grocery store, at a taco truck, as well as cleaning homes.

He admits he feels guilty.

I don't like it, but I have to work because I have to pay my bills.

They have to subsist.

Financially and economically, they have to eat.

And because of the immigration court backlog, many of Skerrett's clients will not only wait for a work permit, they'll also be on hold for four years or more for a final ruling on their case.

They may get a no no.

They may get a no.

After after ten years of being here with a work permit, and then the government expects that person to leave after being here.

I mean, justice has to be fast and economically feasible.

I mean, the cases are taking too long, so asylum cases should be resolved within a year.

They shouldn't be pending like ten years like this.

Jose hopes his answer will be the one he is waiting for so he can build the life he's been dreaming of.

I hope one day, like, keep studying and finally have my job.

Joining me now is Judge Denise Slavin, an immigration judge for 25 years, now currently retired, but has been called out of retirement previously to help with the backlog of immigration cases.

Judge Slavin, welcome.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

Thank you for inviting me.

So, Judge Slavin, let's start with this.

Help us to understand how bad this backlog of cases really is.

It's like a tsunami.

It is horrible.

We have 3.7 million cases pending in the immigration court at this time.

And that means we have about 69 court nationwide.

That means we have over 4800 cases per judge on average.

Some have much more than that.

Some have fewer, but it's just a crushing caseload.

I know you were a judge in Miami.

How does that compare to, let's say, I don't know, 20 years ago, 20 years ago, judges were complaining if they had 900 cases on there, their, on their docket.

And at that time, our supervisor was saying, I know the ideal is 500 to 600.

So this is just totally out of proportion to that.

It's incredible.

So for folks who say, you know, I don't employ anyone who's undocumented, I don't have a relative who's undocumented.

Why should we care about this issue?

You should care about this issue because the the backlog and some of the other current political issues caused cause inefficiencies and delays in the court.

And the more delays there are in the court, the longer people stay here and the longer they become part of our society and part of our network.

And I can tell you, when I was hearing cases of people who had been here five years or six years, I don't know how many times people came into court countless times and or came into court or wrote letters to me and said, you can't deport this guy.

You don't understand.

He's my neighbor.

He's my son's soccer coach or my daughter's soccer coach, or he's the youth leader at our church.

We have barbecues with him.

He he's my landscaper.

He has an American flag pin.

And on his truck.

They become enmeshed in our society even though we we don't realize it.

And we need them desperately.

We need them for our economy.

Also.

So we spoke earlier, and you told me that one of the big problems, the causes is that this process has become politicized.

Explain that to us.

What does that mean?

Well, the immigration court is unlike regular courts.

The courts are set up under our Constitution and under our Constitution.

We have article one, which is the legislature, article two, which is the executive, and article three, which is the court system.

Even though we're in immigration court, we are not in that article three, we are not independent courts.

We are now, under the executive and we're in the Department of Justice.

We're in a law enforcement agency.

So you have a court and a law enforcement agency.

And that means that as the priorities of each administration change, they can change the priorities for the court.

So basically, it's like having the prosecutor in a criminal case say, judge, we don't want you hearing these cases today.

We want you to think hear these other cases because they're more important.

So it's just not it it's totally different structure than the other than regular courts are.

And that causes problems with delay and inefficiencies in the court system.

I know you told me that they sent you for time to the border, to the US-Mexico border.

Can you explain?

You said, you know, I guess there were some cases that were prioritize, but in the end, you weren't able to do as many cases as perhaps you had hoped to do or not.

Yeah.

And that and I have to just clarify, I mean, that was a while back, but it is it is a good example.

The priority of that administration was they were going to send us put, benches in the trenches, send judges to the, the border to hear cases right away.

And that was the political commitment they made.

Well, the problem was the cases of people who come Red cross over the border aren't ready to be heard right away.

There's a you know, the concept of due process is we give time, people time to get an attorney, time to make their applications, to get witnesses and documents and evidence they need.

So what had happened was I was in a docket that had cases ready to be heard right away, and cases that I were bringing back.

So I had to cancel for two weeks, about 200, excuse me, about 100 cases.

I went to the border and I only had about eight cases on the docket for two weeks because they just weren't ready.

Right.

Judge, how do we fix this?

How are we?

The main way we can fix this is something creating an article one court for the immigration court system and the article one court basically takes us out of this, the executive and makes us a separate court under the legislature.

And then that way we can set priorities according to when cases are ready and how to move them the quickest judicially and in accordance with due process, as opposed to constantly shifting our dockets every time a new administration comes in.

It's not just Republican or Democrat.

Every time a new administration comes in, the change and we have to shift our dockets around and we lose time and cases that are ready go stale and cases that aren't ready are pushed up to the front.

What changes do you expect with the Trump administration?

I expect some of those changes.

I mean, they'll they'll probably be shifting priorities and we'll be sure to to cancel cases and reset some the case law will change.

And that's one of the strange things about being in the administration that we are, because the immediate case law can be set by the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is, again, under that administration and even the attorney general.

And what happened last time when case law changes back and forth like this, with causes more appeals and more romance, and we have to do more do overs of cases.

So that again, court is inefficient and causes delays.

And if I can end on this, you told me you believe in more legal pathways for folks to get here legally.

Why?

It's personal.

My belief in terms of addressing the border crisis generally, I would say it's three things fixed immigration court, but there's these push and pull factors.

There's factors that that pull people to come into the United States.

And one is employment.

But we need people here.

I think I told you, you know, it's a not so well known secret that $13 billion are paid into the Social Security system by people who are working, here, without authorization, under false Social Security number, so they can never get that money back.

And it's supporting the Social Security Administration in 2034.

The administration has predicted it predicted Social Security, predicted that they'll be depleted with that.

If we take these funds away, it's going to happen a lot quicker.

So if we had a legal program where people can contribute in Social Security depends on growing that.

Also our economy, sales taxes, the taxes that people pay, all of these things help and the jobs that we need, we need people with to work in the hotel, the construction industry and agriculture.

So if we create legal pathways to do that, then we can help our economy thrive.

And take away some of the, the factors, pushing people to come here illegally.

Judge Slavin, we are grateful for your time.

Thank you so very much.

Thank you very much.

Florida voters overwhelmingly passed amendment five to help keep their property taxes in line with inflation.

But how much will homeowners really save?

We talk to the experts.

Coming up next.

Florida voters overwhelmingly passed amendment five, which adjusts the homestead exemption for inflation, WGCU's Jennifer Crawford explains how this change to the state constitution will only mean small savings right now, but could add up over time.

With the passage of amendment five, WGCU reached out to Lee County Property Appraiser Matt Caldwell to help us understand how the updated homestead exemption will work for a typical homeowner.

So every year, the homestead exemption savings will be, recalculated based upon where we were last year.

What inflation has done to it for example, if your homestead property is valued at $300,000, you pay taxes on that value minus the current homestead exemption of 50,000 equaling $250,000.

With the passage of amendment five, that $50,000 exemption would be adjusted for inflation.

In this case with an inflation rate of about 4%.

The exemption goes up to $52,000.

That means you would pay taxes on a home value of $248,000.

Caldwell estimates the $2,000 increase in the exemption would decrease your tax bill, about $50 the first year.

That savings will build up over time.

And, as this continues to adjust, it's going to make a bigger and bigger difference, to our property owners in 2026, you'd probably be paying, taxes on, on, depending on how the inflation works.

But, you know, it'll probably be a $54,000 savings ten years from now.

Could easily be $70,000 in savings.

And over time, that's going to keep pace with the, change in the value of the dollar and the value of our properties.

While almost 70% of voters approved the adjustment for inflation to reduce taxes.

Former Cape Coral City Mayor Joe Mazurkiewicz did not philosophically.

I think we all should pay our fair share for governance, and this artificially reduces the fair share of those who have been here a while.

The Florida Policy Institute, a nonprofit who opposed the measure, said some state economists believe the amendment would cost local governments roughly $400 million in the first five years.

But Mazurkiewicz, a government expert in feasibility studies for communities that want to incorporate, believes the impact will be negligible.

This particular change, amendment five, will probably either slightly dis decrease the level of service in some programs.

It won't make the program go away, or local governments will just find efficiencies within those programs to keep providing them at the same level.

In the meantime, Caldwell believes this adjustment for inflation should have happened almost 100 years ago.

The original homestead, which was adopted in 1934, was a $5,000 exemption back when most houses were worth $4,500.

So it was an enormous tax benefit if we had, had the inflation adjuster back in 1934, the homestead exemption would be worth probably $250,000, a significant exemption leading to more tax savings.

Most Floridians hope to benefit from in their lifetime.

Reporting for WGCU.

I'm Jennifer Crawford.

And to find out if you qualify for a homestead exemption, go to your county property Appraiser's website.

You must file to receive that exemption.

An update now on a story we recently brought to you.

Palmetto Ridge High School has won the Collier County Supervisor of Elections 11th annual High School voter registration Challenge.

Schools across the county competed to see which one could register and pre-register the most voters among the school's eligible students.

This year's challenge collected 776 voter registrations and Pre-registrations.

Palmetto Ridge gathered 178 applications.

An award was presented to the school staff, and students recognize them for their achievements.

in since its start in 2013, Collier's High School Voter Registration Challenge has registered and pre-registered nearly 9500 students.

We also have an update now on the Brotherhood ride that we showed you a couple weeks ago.

50 cyclists completed 632 miles on the road after they started in East Naples.

The riders raised money for families of Florida first responders who died in the line of duty in 2023.

The cyclists are current and retired law enforcement officers, firefighters and paramedics.

They ended their journey in Live Oak in the Panhandle.

Ride organizers Jeff Moore says they raised about $50,000.

That money will be divided between the families and one agency that lost a K-9 officer in the line of duty, Moore says there was one crash along the way.

Three cyclists collided and went down, but nobody was hurt beyond some scrapes, Ross adds.

It was a tough ride with strong head and crosswinds much of the way the cyclists met the families of some of the fallen heroes at stops along the route.

Health professionals are raising alarms about what they're calling another potential pandemic childhood obesity.

The National Institutes of Health reports that childhood obesity rates have tripled over the past 30 years, and that trend is visible here in our community.

A recent screening of about 450 children in a model revealed that nearly half are overweight or obese, a rate significantly higher than state and national averages.

Joining me now is Doctor Salvatore Anzalone, the medical director of pediatrics at the Health Care Network.

Doctor, welcome.

Thank you for having me.

So we all know that childhood obesity is a national problem, but you found that there are some very concerning numbers in our own community here.

Yeah.

I mean, when you think about obesity as an epidemic, we had a pandemic.

We just got through.

So now the new one is called the childhood obesity.

When I looked at the numbers statistically across the board nationally, it's somewhere between 20 and 30% of children overweight.

So we did a deep dive after the pandemic into our children.

We started noticing some of the growth charts showing increasing weight.

So we pulled about 44,000 charts, and we looked at the total number of health care network.

The health care network is uniquely positioned because we take care of almost 60% of the kids in Collier County.

So we had a really great opportunity to look at the data.

We found that 43% of the children were overweight or obese.

Now we're saying to ourselves, what is going on here?

What's happening?

And where can we intervene and what can we do so that the issues were there?

We saw the problem right in front of us that just blew up after the pandemic.

I said, well, we don't get a handle on this.

We're going to have a very, very sick population as adults.

So when we take our kids to the doctor, we often hear from the doctor after they check height and weight.

All right.

Maybe your child needs to lose a little.

Gain a little.

But you believe that there needs to be a lot more support for these children who are really struggling with their weight more than what traditional doctor's offices are currently providing now.

Right.

Because my patients, we have a Hispanic population in Immokalee.

And if you explain, you know, cut out your carbohydrate, they're looking at you like they'll say, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But they don't know.

They don't know what's called a carbohydrate day.

They don't know what that is.

So we have to have education as part of this component.

We have to teach them how to use food as medicine, how to use food to create excellent health.

And how do we go from here to here?

So we have to teach them.

We have to show them.

And it's a process.

It's not something that will happen overnight.

So we know that nutrition counseling was going to be very important.

So when we pull pull that 43% I was telling you about earlier and we started looking at focusing areas of population in Immokalee.

There were 48%.

So you're saying 48% of children and family that you you served were showing up as overweight or overweight or above the 85th percentile?

You are on a mission to try to convince also the insurance world that there should be nutritionists and all pediatricians offices, right?

So as we as we saw this, we saw that, okay, what do we do about it?

First thing we did is we had nutritious evolved for the education piece.

So we put nutritionists and we started referring them to our our colleagues that had nutritionists out there.

Core Health was one of the organizations that took advantage of this.

University of Florida came in with their with their with their endocrinologist.

Golisano had their endocrinologist work with me.

So we started referring our patients out to our endocrinologist.

We started looking at some of the data that we were seeing.

We saw that number one, when a patient had a visit with a nutritionist, that they had at least a 10 or 15% response in their BMI.

So let's say they reduced their BMI by 10 or 15%.

If you had 100 children, 15 of them already showed signs of their BMI dropping.

If they had a second appointment, it was 25%.

If they had a third appointment, it was 45%.

If they had four or more appointments, up to 65%.

So we know that two thirds of our patients will respond just to education alone.

Now, was the other things evolve.

Yeah, we need to do exercise.

The nutritionist were involved in directing some of the exercise.

You can't have an overweight child go do a run a mile.

It may be just doing a 15 20 minute walk, gradually increasing the exercise as they felt comfortable.

University of Florida.

When they were coming down, they were doing fit tests of evaluating fit test and they saw fit tests improve on children before and after the program.

When we looked at our our data, we saw that goodness gracious.

Why isn't Johnny or Sue in the program?

Well, they didn't show up.

We saw that 25% of our patients weren't showing up.

So what we've done now is we've seen that this is such an important, important part of this.

We have integrated this into our practices.

And some insurance companies are starting to give us grants to do this, which kudos to, some of the insurers to help us with this.

But it's not all of them.

They're starting to recognize that this is an important feat.

And I don't know, I can kind of guess why they're not involved.

This costs involved in having nutrition calcium.

They'll cover it for a disease.

Like if you have type two diabetes you'll get a nutritionist.

But if you are overweight and you won't, they're going to wait for you to have the disease before they start paying for the nutrition counseling.

Meanwhile, we already know that it has a positive effect.

A local Romanian community celebrated its first fall festival right here in Fort Myers recently.

The food, music and dance brings an authentic piece of eastern Europe to Southwest Florida.

Culture and connections.

Reporter Elizabeth Andarge has more.

Being involved or doing what I love.

Small Christian Orthodox community.

Hosted its annual fall festival.

Generations gathered together to celebrate their faith, culture and tradition.

The festival created a sense of belonging for this Romanian American community.

While building a cultural bridge to other Southwest Floridians.

Food preparations alone took over three days.

Here's church member Vicky Dumitru.

We have, Somali cabbage rolls.

We have, meaty day, which are, skinless sausages.

Romanian style.

Since Saint Anthony's, the Great Romanian Orthodox Church organized this event.

We wanted to know if this was more of a religious or cultural affair.

When our religion is not, very strict.

We drink, some alcohol.

Homemade, which is on the table over there.

When we celebrate, we like to have a good time.

But then lastly, if I can get back to the neighborhood.

As it turns out, when Romanians throw their first festival in Fort Myers, they don't just bring a taste of home.

They bring the whole kitchen and dance floor.

Oh, it feels great.

I'm glad lots of people, show up.

It's for the first time, and I, I hope we gonna keep going.

For WGCU news, I'm Elizabeth Andarge Next year, the community plans a bigger celebration with more vendors at a larger location.

Well, coming up next week on Southwest Florida, In Focus is talk about the death of Florida agriculture exaggerated.

We'll show you how farming and ranching are changing to survive.

Be sure to join us for that story and much more on WGCU.

In the meantime, have a great week everyone!