It looks like Prince William and Loudoun Counties will be alone in efforts to deny services to illegal immigrants:
Officials around the Washington area say they will not follow Prince William’s and Loudoun’s efforts to discourage illegal immigrants from residing within their borders, despite anti-illegal immigrant groups’ concerns that the neighboring counties will become magnets for undocumented workers.
Both the Prince William and Loudoun County Boards of Supervisors recently voted to direct officials to study denying services to those in the country illegally. Representatives from Montgomery, Prince George’s and Arlington counties say they do not foresee their counties investigating similar policy changes.
“There are all sorts of new Americans who have settled in Montgomery County,” county spokesman Patrick Lacefield said. “We consider our diversity our strength, and we’re not going to be going down the road that perhaps Loudoun and Prince William are, in terms of ‘cracking down’ on immigrants.”
J. Walter Tejada, vice chairman of the Arlington County Board, said Arlington has no plans to change its policies, either.
“Arlington will continue to be a welcoming and inclusive county,” Tejada said. “What Loudoun and Prince William counties are doing is government-sanctioned xenophobia at its very ugliest.”
Officials from Fairfax County and Alexandria said only that their jurisdictions are not pursuing any action on illegal immigration at this time.
What impact that will have on where immigrants live is unclear, but it will be interesting to watch.
July 19th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Patrick Lacefield exemplifies ignorance and a failure to perform his fiduciary duties to citizens by subverting the real issue of ILLEGAL immigrants by trying to shift the discussion to “Americans” and “immigrants.” Duh - yes we are inclusive of legal Americans, whether native or foreign born. They are legally here and part of our society. The ILLEGAL immigrants are not citizens. Most importantly, they are not Lacefield’s constituents to whom he has the duty to serve. He needs to be taught that he is supposed to be upholding our society and not harboring and condoning illegal action.
July 19th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I wonder if they’ll change their tune if the illegals in Loudon and PWC move into Fairfax and Arlington?
In any case, we’re at the beginning, not the end. The pressure from the residents of FFX hasn’t really begun to ramp up yet.
August 8th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Fairfax county has a large undocumented migrant community.