Last night’s marathon Board of Supervisors session in Woodbridge lasted until the wee hours of the morning and, in the end, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to approve a resolution to enforce the anti-illegal immigration ordinance it had passed in July:
Prince William County supervisors early this morning voted to move forward with a nationally watched plan to crack down on illegal immigrants by increasing local police enforcement and restricting certain public services.
The unanimous vote, which came at 2:30 a.m., followed a 12-hour session of emotional public testimony, as one person after another — nearly 400 speakers in all — urged supervisors to approve or reject the measures. More than 1,200 people gathered at the county government complex in Woodbridge. County staff said it was largest crowd they had ever seen for a board of supervisors meeting.
Many of the immigrants who remained to the end appeared stunned and dejected at the supervisors’ unanimous vote.
“They didn’t hear what people said today,” Manassas resident Juan Pablo Gomez said. “Why did they waste our time?”
As the meeting began shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday, supporters and opponents of the measures scuffled in the street before police pulled the two sides apart, threatening to make arrests. A charged atmosphere persisted all night and into the early morning. The mood reflected the intense debate playing out in communities across the country as an increasing number of jurisdictions move to clamp down on illegal immigrants following Congress’ failure to pass immigration overhaul measures.
The resolution supervisors approved early today included new provisions addressing concerns about cost, fairness and public confusion about the measures. It postponed the more contentious matter of how to secure long-term funding for the plan, projected to cost $14.2 million over the next five years. It also calls for a public education campaign aimed at the immigrant and minority communities, while directing the county to partner with a university or outside consulting group to review the measures’ fairness.
Interestingly enough, though, the Supervisors literally didn’t put their money where their mouth is:
With Prince William property values dropping 14 percent this year and the county facing a projected revenue shortfall of $10 million in the next fiscal year, supervisors would only commit $325,000 toward the measures, but pledged to find the rest of the money later.
Police chief Charlie T. Deane called it “start-up funding.”
“The funding is something that’s beyond me, but I expect it to be there,” he told board members.
And I expect it to rain doughuts on Thursday, that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
Moreover, even the much-vaunted denial of county services to illegal immigrants isn’t nearly as broad as it’s proponents said it was going to be back in July:
The county’s plan to deny services has evolved since it was first proposed. Services such as access to schools and emergency medical care are federally protected, and illegal immigrants are already ineligible for benefits such as Medicare and food stamps.
Instead, Prince William has pinpointed a more limited set of services and benefits, including substance abuse counseling, homeless assistance and in-home care and other county programs for the elderly. County officials said they are not sure how many illegal immigrants are taking advantage of these programs or how much money would be saved by curbing them.
Someone please tell me how denying in-home health care is going to address the issue of illegal immigration, because I just don’t see it.
Between the paltry funding for the police force and the limited number of services that are actually going to be covered by the ordinance, it almost leads one to wonder if this whole exercise was nothing more than an election year stunt. But, of course, our politicians in Woodbridge would never do something like that. Right ?
