Prince William County Passes Resolution on Illegal Immigrants

[Squatch]

Lots of political wrangling going on in my county with respect to illegal immigrants.

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WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) -- After 12 hours of meeting and hearing emotional testimony, Prince William County supervisors voted to move forward with their contentious measure to deny services to illegal immigrants.

They postponed the matter of how to secure long-term funding for the plan, which includes allowing police to check the residency status of anyone arrested in the county and improve cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

More than 1,200 people packed the county government complex in Woodbridge and the streets outside last night -- and about 400 signed up to address the supervisors during the public comment period.

As the meeting began, supporters and opponents of the measures scuffled in the street before police separated them.

Link

Last Night's Meeting Minutes

I'll try to find out which services, exactly, are going to be denied...(I'm being called away to a meeting right now)

[Squatch]

1. From the WaPo

"The new version gives county workers 60 days to help board members determine which public services can be lawfully denied to illegal immigrants. Unlike the previous resolution, it specifies that services such as emergency medical care and other benefits mandated by law cannot be restricted. At the request of the county's attorneys, language was added to several sections to avoid violating federal and state laws."

Link

I was concerned about this. While I think routine public services should be denied illegal immigrants, I do not believe that emergency services should.

[Virginia Dare]

2. This is going to end up being a nightmare for law enforcement..

not to mention the prosecutors. While it's good to acknowledge that you have a problem, this is a short-sighted, not mention mean-spirited way of dealing with it. The anger it's stoked within the immigrant community is palpable and IMO, it only succeeds in dividing communities instead of inspiring them to work together to solve the problems.


My county, Fairfax, is also beginning to look into these issues as well. It's become a political hot button. In typical repub fashion, the feds have foisted this problem on the local communities to deal with.

[Squatch]

3. PWC, Fairfax, and Loudon Counties have been all over the news

with respect to this subject.

[Blaze Diem]

6. Where are our Fed leaders on this subject? When states look to the Feferal branch to assist

they are silent.
I believe we no longer have a branch of Federal Government in our country.

States are on their own whether its road & bridge & highways in need, or how to supply their legal and illegal citizens with all that they cry 'help' for.
How can the Federal government ask fo rtaxes if they abandon the needs of those they collect those taxes from?
We have no Federal government, and what does exist has been hijacked and reformed into what?

Can States seceed? What are the odds that a stae seceeded can thrive when living just along the boundaries of a government like that in the USA today?

Critical mass and Bush hasn't quite finished the job he came to DC for. I fear that the 2008 election has already been determined and Bush's base has more tweeking to do in this country in order to complete his party's own manifest destiny.
Welcome to the New World Order of Bush. Heil.
It is happening, not just words spoken on an internet web site.

When the Federal Government becomes obsolete to the American people, 'we the people' have lost our democracy. What do we do then? (or NOW) Bush's plan has been set in motion and carried out as pre-planned. I fear for what remains on Bush's 'to do' list.
The Federal Government was hijacked and whoever believes they will, by law, relinquish their power and placement in the world via the 2008 election is more optimistic than I am.

Illegal immigration like many other overwhelming issues will not be addressed by this government because it is part of the plan to weaken the states and change forever the way of democracy.

[Virginia Dare]

8. I absolutely agree with you..

this is all happening by design. This is a classic divide and conquer wedge issue, and only serves to make life more miserable for lower and middle income Americans, a perfect situation for the bush aristocracy.

[Blaze Diem]

9. Yep, pre-planned and perfectly executed.

We have no Federal Government of and by the people.
What do we do? States hands have been tied by policy and it doesn't take much forsight to see where we will end up.
Sick and sorry demise for the once greatest free nation in the world.
Look to any third world country for a glimpse at the future of the USA.

[EFerrari]

7. It's bad public health policy. n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

4. OK, I'm thinking,

"Can he do that?" Nevermind. :blush:

[Squatch]

5. Funny. I fixed it.

If you're from Northern VA, Prince William is actually a county and not necessarily a person.

[CatWoman]

11. and they have the meanest cops that side of the Potomac

:)

[Laughing Mirror]

10. Ivania C. Castillo strongly opposed the resolution.

She ended her comments by telling the board to “Kiss my ass.”
“I’m just very angry with these people because they already made this decision,” Castillo said.

“I know it’s a strong word and I don’t mean to offend the rest of the people here, but that was to Mr. Stewart and I was so sorry that he run like a chicken to the bathroom,” the Dumfries woman said.

In fact, Prince William Chairman Corey A. Stewart, R at-large, was out of the board room at the time giving an interview to CNN.

Alejandro Juarez scolded Stewart during his comments to the board for leaving the room to do a television interview.

“This is more important than giving an interview outside. He needs to concentrate on a solution to this problem,” said the 41-year-old Juarez, a legal immigrant and Woodbridge business owner.

Stewart, who was in the meeting, could not be reached for comment.

http://potomacnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WPN/MGArticle/WPN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353142783&path=

Running scared.

This hateful resolution passing seems to me like the last hurrah of the dwindling white minority still in control in Prince William County. They're afraid. They see a dwindling tax base with home values down 15% and many thousands of foreclosures. They see they're now in the minority, they're outnumbered and they think this xenophobic resolution is going to fix things in the county, make things pretty again like they were before, chase out the "illegals" and replace them with upscale white folks, all completely legal upstanding citizens of course.

The problem for Stewart and Stirrup is that good upstanding white folks they want to populate the county are apparently not beating a path to Woodbridge and to Manassas (working class communities par excellence) and filling the empty spaces created by so much greedy overbuilding followed now by so many thousands of foreclosures. So what will their next trick be now that they've succeeded in painting an image of the county as not a nice place to live ... for anybody?

[Squatch]

12. Minority...really?

1990 2000 2006
White 83.3% 68.9% 59.7%
Black 11.6% 18.8% 18.6%
Hispanic 4.5% 9.7% 19.1%

[Laughing Mirror]

13. Majority white non-hispanic?

US census says White persons not Hispanic was 54.2% percent in 2005, and I don't know if there's been a sudden influx of White non Hispanics into the county in the intervening almost three years since that census, but I doubt it. Of course, the US census is truly just the official figures. Do they count the people that are not documented but that are living there? What real percentage do they comprise of the county's residents? They are there, though, blending in with rest of the legal immigrants. Look at the streets. Look at the schools. It is majority minority, especially in Eastern Prince William, and if you add in Manassas and Manassas Park in the west.

And it's not just Hispanics, either.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51153.html