Bacon's Rebellion

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PWC to Illegals: Go Home

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by

James A. Bacon
in

The illegal immigration debate may have dialed back to a simmer in Congress but it’s heating back up locally. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously last night to curb access by illegal immigrants to public services and to step up immigration enforcement by local police.

The public hearing was Prince William’s largest in 20 years; manay in the overflow crowd of roughly 400 watched the proceedings on closed circuit television in the lobby. More than 100 people addressed the board.

It’s still not clear exactly which services would be restricted. The county would not curtail access to schools or emergency medical care. Presumably, the restrictions would apply to welfare-like public assistance benefits. The measure gives county workers 60 to 90 days, depending upon which newspaper you believe, to help board members determine which public services can be lawfully denied to illegal immigrants.

The measure issued a directive to require police to ask people about their immigration status, if they had probable cause to do so. The resolution also directed the police department to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train officers who would enforce immigration laws under ICE supervision.

For details see:

The Washington Post
The Washington Examiner
The Manassas Journal-Messenger
The Washington Times
And, for the most colorful coverage, see Black Velvet Bruce Li, whose Greg Letiecq led a group called Help Save Manassas in support of the ordinance. (Use your Firefox browser to access the blog.)

Foes of the measure raised a number of practical objections, but the main rhetorical thrust was this: If you want to crack down on illegal immigration, you’re racist. I’m sorry, but the old canard of crying racism-racism-racism has been played so many times that it’s lost its power. There is no tradition or history of anti-Hispanic racism in Virginia, and no sense of guilt to appease. Indeed, Northern Virginia is a hotbed of Hispanic business enterprise, which suggests the very opposite, that Virginians are very hospitable to Hispanics who reside here legally.

(I would say this: Prince William could inoculate itself against such charges if it required police to check the immigration status of anyone convicted of a crime, not to rely upon the subjective judgment of probable cause. If you’ve been convicted of a crime and you reside here illegally, I don’t care if you’re Hispanic or if you’re a blond-haired, blue-eyed Eastern European, I don’t friggin’ want you in this country.)

Prince William’s action may be the forerunner of things to come. Clearly, the anti-illegal movement has legs, not just nationally but locally. House Republicans proposed a number of laws earlier this year pertaining to illegal immigration. With all the excitement over transportation and land use, I didn’t have time to delve into them. If I get a chance, I’ll resurrect some of that info.

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5 responses to “PWC to Illegals: Go Home”

  1. CG2 Avatar
    CG2

    Jim:
    Virginia law already requires those maintaining detention facilities in Virginia (jails, prisons,etc) to ascertain the immigration status of every person admitted to their facilities. This was required two or three years ago, in part to ensure that Virginia can apply for federal funds available under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. So, the status of anyone who goes to jail/prison after being convicted of a crime is determined under current state law. And, most of the jails are routinely informing ICE who in their custody has been determined to be not lawfully present under NCIC Illegal Alien Inquiries or they are submitting the names of all prisoners to ICE routinely so that ICE can issue detainers for those it determines are not here legally.

    The Prince William policy requires the police to develop a policy to inquire into the immigration status of everyone “detained” by police for whom they have “probable cause” to believe that the person detained is not lawfully present. It is unclear under the resolution what will constitute detention or probable cause. It is up to the Police Chief to develop policies to guide police in the field on these points. It is very unclear what will constitute probable cause … obviously, it cannot be someone’s color, language or name. Should be interesting to see how they avoid lawsuits for disparate treatment/arbitrary action that human nature assures will ensue. Also will be interesting to see how they get around the fact that the Supreme Court has held that no person stopped by the police can be compelled to give any information other than his name except if he’s driving and then only his driver’s license, registration and insurance info.

    It is not a mere canard to suggest that ethnicity and class are at play here when people like Greg L say this sort of thing advocating for the resolution:

    “When we moved to this area, it was just a regular American community,” said Greg Letiecq, who heads the group Help Save Manassas, which has lobbied strongly in support of the measure. “Six years later it’s transformed into something different. It doesn’t resemble the American dream that I bought or that I wanted to raise my children in.”

    And, you need look no further than Prince William to see proof of anti-Hispanic sentiment in Virginia. Two teens just pled guilty to murdering an immigrant worker on his way home from work saying that they were out to “get a Mexican.” (“You Have to be Carefully Taught”). And, all of the rule of law folks who claim concern about “lawlessness” have expressed no concern that, while crime in Prince William generally has gone down as the percentage of Hispanics in the community has gone up, street robberies have gone up with 40% of reported robberies being perpetrated against 18% of the population that is Hispanic, with many more likely unreported. Clearly, criminals are targeting people based on ethnicity, and the good citizens of Prince William so charged up about civil immigration violations don’t seem to care about this disproportionate level of violence being perpetrated on only one segment of their community.

    CG2

  2. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Claire, Thanks again for your perspective. I’m uncomfortable with the “probable cause” aspect of the PWC bill, as I alluded to in my original post. I’m not saying it will be used to target Hispanics, but it could be. If Virginia law already requires the immigration status of criminals to be ascertained, then that should be sufficient. We’re not talking “probable cause,” in that case — we’re talking about people duly convicted. Perhaps PWC’s proper focus should be to ensure that the law is enforced in its jails, and that the resources exist to deport anyone identified as an illegal immigrant.

    The crime statistics you cite are interesting. The reason that I, as a humble “rule of law” commentator have never expressed concern about the disproportionate victimization of Hispanics in street crime is that I was not aware of it. I wonder what the dynamics are. Do you think that the criminals are more likely to select Hispanics as victims under the logic that, if they’re illegal, they’re less likely to report the crime?

    Perhaps you could pen a column for the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine to generate more awareness of the problem.

  3. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    P.S. Claire, your comments here are more illuminating than most of the quotes reported in the news articles. Perhaps reporters find that charges of racism make “better copy” than the facts you bring up.

  4. CG2 Avatar
    CG2

    Thanks, Jim. I’ll be glad to pen a column for the e-zine. Police professionals will tell you that the disproportionate victimization of Latinos (a problem in Eastern Chesterfield and South Richmond for some time) is linked to two key factors:

    1) the population is perceived to carry around lots of cash, which is often true, in part, because we have denied undocumented workers the ID necessary to do business with a bank (even where they could get a tax ID number and pay taxes);and

    2) the population is perceived as less likely to call the police, a reality that will be enhanced by use of local police to enforce civil immigration violations.

    Claire

  5. Tobias Jodter Avatar
    Tobias Jodter

    “disproportionate victimization”? 40%, 18%? What are the percentages on the perpetrators of these crimes?

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