Posted on 07/19/2007 5:52:10 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Officials around the Washington area say they will not follow Prince Williams and Loudouns 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 County (VA) and Loudoun County (VA) Boards of Supervisors recently voted to direct officials to study denying services to those in the country illegally. Representatives from Montgomery (Md), Prince Georges (Md) and Arlington (Va) 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 were 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 (VA) 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.
There is debate over whether illegal immigrants will leave Loudoun and Prince William counties.
We track Spanish-language media programs, and theres definitely talk of people saying theyre going to pick up and go elsewhere in the area, said Greg Letiecq, president of Help Save Manassas.Weve had the red carpet out for a while here in Montgomery County, said Brad Botwin, director of HelpSaveMaryland.com. Now that parts of Virginia are making it more uncomfortable for them, it will make us even more attractive to illegal aliens.
Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA of Maryland, an immigrant-advocacy group, disagreed. They want to stay there, he said, where they already have houses and jobs to support them.
That could well be. I was a bit young then to be paying attention to local politics.
I remember reading (and posting) about that election quite a bit!! I think that started it ALL!
“And the rest of us who have the same illegal alien problemms....”
Illegal Immigration is EVERYONE’S problem!
I cannot IMAGINE as a foreign resident in Japan getting any kind of social services, driver's license, free schooling, or anything, without solid proof of my resident status here in Japan. There are so many checkpoints along the way, you would never get away with it, for very long, as an illegal in Japan.
My dad is an immigrant, and nobody is cracking down on him.
Oh wait, I forgot, he came here LEGALLY, obeyed the law, and became a U.S. citizen in the early 1990s.
To associate legal immigrants such as my parents with illegal aliens, to lump us into the same group, to imply that they too, are illegal...is an insult of the highest degree, but hey, what else can you expect from the Socialist bigots in Montgomery County, Maryland?
What Loudoun and Prince William counties are doing is government-sanctioned xenophobia at its very ugliest.
Hey now, speak for yourself, Arlingtonian. I take it that Mr. Tojada doesn't partake in the ghetto that is South Arlington.
As for me, I live in Loudoun. I have lived in Prince William. Strangely enough, I like it out here.
Oooh goody...as if Maryland wasn’t screwed up enough. Now we’ve got illegals coming in. Man I got outta here for college just in time.
As a side note, just talking investments here, I WOULD buy property in PWC and Loudoun counties, as with such action by the local supervisor councils there--in contrast to what Arlington and Maryland will do--and provided if the illegals actually do leave en-masse, those hitherto depressed areas in VA will be DIRT CHEAP but values will rise fast! (Might be a nice time to pick up a nice little condo/fixer upper investment in maybe six months to 1 year's time if the "indocumentado stampede" out of there can be demographically and statistically, if not anecdotally, verified).
You are so right. When my son and now daughter-in-law wanted to marry, my son managed to get a job in Japan, and they went through all kinds of loops and jumps for him to be able to live there legally, and on a smaller scale for us to be able to visit a few days.
Then when they wanted to move back to the states, they spent a small fortune and a good two years, being interviewed by mexicans no less, for her to be able to live here legally.
Driving a wedge between LEGAL and ILLEGAL immigration. That is what it is all about. Do that, and we will succeed indeed.
Wonder where all the illegals went when Georgia kicked ‘em out? I was on a flight with a Mexican family moving from Texas to Georgia. They were telling me how much nicer people were to them in Georgia compared to Texas. I suspected then they were illegal. Wonder what they’re saying now? HA!
I think they came here to Howard County.
Virginia ought to start giving free bus tickets to PG and Montgomery counties.
Let’s see how long their kumbaya song lasts then.
It's not a total loss.
My sister and I are paying in-state tuition at William & Mary and the University of Virginia, respectively. Both are excellent educational institutions, despite the liberal bias. Plus, we got top-notch high school educations at TJHSST in Alexandria, the top public science and tech magnet school in the entire Republic.
The illegals can't get any of that. Well, in theory they are eligible to attend TJHSST, except the incredibly difficult entrance test and application process (as selective as an Ivy League college) usually results in incoming freshmen who are either Asian or white.
As for in-state tuition and financial aid benefits, the Colleges and Universities here are fairly strict about legal presence...meaning no in-state tuition or financial aid for illegals!
Another take out a big ad, i.e. to advertise, 1/2 page, in the local Hispanic papers in Spanish, outlining all the recent statements by Montgomery County officials--in Spanish, and all the benefits available already there (free schools, day labor centers, bilingual government, etc), and urge sin papeles (illegal) people to uproot from Virginia and move en-masse to Maryland. That would be fun. I still feel sad for the few dwindling conservatives in those Maryland counties, but I almost wish this urban illegal alien blight in Virginia, which infected some of the more conservative communities, back on the lib communities across the river or in more divvvvvverrrrrrrse sections of Virginia.
Maryland can have them and increase the cesspoll they have already started.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.