Posted on 05/26/2008 1:23:38 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WOODBRIDGE, Va. – Business at Pedro Vargas' store, Club Video Mexico, has slid so steeply that only eight people walked through the door one day last month.
One thing he has been selling, however, are one-way bus tickets from northern Virginia to Texas and Mexico.
Soon he'll be getting his own ticket out of town – seeking a friendlier and more lucrative place to do business.
“The last few months have been very, very bad for us,” said Vargas, who plans to move this summer from Prince William County, about 25 miles southwest of Washington, to Utah, where he recently opened another store.
Many say Prince William's new crackdown on illegal immigrants has created an environment so unfriendly that Hispanic people are leaving the county of more than 350,000, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau was nearly 15 percent Hispanic in 2006.
The county's policy, which has drawn heated debate and national attention, directs police officers to check the immigration status of everyone they arrest. Beginning July 1, illegal immigrants also will be denied certain services, such as business licenses and mortgage and rental assistance.
“That's like a smack in the face to me,” said Vargas, a 24-year-old Mexican immigrant who is living in the U.S. legally. “I've been living here my whole life, and now they pass this law?”
It is difficult to measure how many Hispanic people have left and their exact reasons for leaving. In addition to immigrants' fears over the new policy, the souring economy and mortgage crisis may be contributing to the departures. But anecdotal evidence increasingly points to a sudden cultural and economic shift in the county's Hispanic community.
Several Hispanic business owners say their sales have plummeted. Prince William school officials say enrollment in English for speakers of other languages classes fell nearly 6 percent to 12,645 students between Sept. 30 and March 31. Other northern Virginia counties had increases.
Salvador Caballero, pastor of Trono de Jehova Pentecostal Church in Woodbridge, said attendance at his Spanish services has shrunk to about 130 people from 200 in recent months. Some people, he said, have stopped coming because they're afraid to be out in public, and others have moved to other states or back to their home countries.
One family of seven packed up and went to Texas. “All they told me is they were going because they were afraid here,” Caballero said. “We're losing a lot of people here in Prince William. I hope they're not going to be sorry later.”
Stephen Fuller, director for the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., said the policy could end up tainting the county's image and scaring off investors.
“I think this will affect the county for several years even if they reverse the policy tonight,” Fuller said. “The damage has been done. It's like personal reputation; it's hard to build that back.”
Supporters of the changes, however, say the crackdown is working as intended. Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart said it already has had a “tremendous positive effect on the quality of life.”
County supervisors recently approved spending $2.6 million for the initiative. Prince William also has incurred higher-than-expected costs at the local jail due to overcrowding. Authorities were taking weeks to pick up suspected illegal immigrants rather than the 72 hours mandated under a partnership between the county and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. County officials were forced to pay to house inmates in other jails in the state.
A policy that went into effect in March directed police to check the residency status of anyone who is detained, no matter how minor the offense, if they believed the person might in the United States illegally. Prince William County supervisors changed the policy last month; now police check the immigration status of all suspects, but only after they are arrested.
Stewart says the change will reduce the possibility of racial-profiling accusations because everyone will now be checked.
But Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the organization still opposes the policy.
“This is an ordinance that through and through sends the message to police that they ought to be stopping and detaining people that speak a foreign language and appear to be from another country,” he said.
Nancy Lyall, of the immigrant advocacy group Mexicans Without Borders, says she doesn't know what effect the policy change will have, but that it appears to have already damaged the Hispanic community.
“The community is still completely devastated,” she said. “And for those obviously that have left, there's certainly no reason for them to go back.”
At the taco restaurant Ricos Tacos Moya, business has dropped by about 50 percent, and owner Salvador Moya said he doesn't know how much longer he'll be able to hold on. He was already forced to shut the doors this year on a second, much larger location in nearby Dumfries, where the bar and dance floor drew some 200 customers each weekend.
“We don't know what we're going to do,” said the Mexican native, who moved to the area 20 years ago and has worked his way up from being a dishwasher. “When the law started, business went down, down, down.”
Are they saying these businesses were living on an ILLEGAL alien population??? If so, they shouldn't be in business at all.
I live in a neighboring county to Prince William, and I really applaud them for taking these steps. It has led to illegals moving from PW to Fairfax, but with a little luck, it will continue until the majority of these illegals get the message - come legally or not at all.
Good news!
Should be the same everywhere!
That's the way it is Mr. Vargas when you base your business on serving illegal immigrants. Perhaps it would be best to find another business model.
My hanky is still dry.
Hey Pedro ... the laws concern illegal aliens, not legal immigrants like you. If your business level is down to where it is non-profitable, perhaps you need to cater to legal citizens or find another line of work.
Yes, my tear ducts must be clogged.
“Stephen Fuller, director for the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., said the policy could end up tainting the county’s image and scaring off investors.
“I think this will affect the county for several years even if they reverse the policy tonight,” Fuller said. “The damage has been done. It’s like personal reputation; it’s hard to build that back.”
Stephen Fuller is a pro-illegal alien activist who has a vested interest in keeping cheap labor around.
He was recently elected to the board of directors for a building company that was raided by ICE a few weeks ago.
ICE arrests 33 at courthouse construction site
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1371913
http://www.turnerconstruction.com/tompkins/content.asp?d=3909
The recently elected Tompkins Builders, Inc. Board of Directors are as follows: Edward Small, chairman, William Brennan, vice chairman, Roger Lang, Gregory Druga, Robert Maxwell, Stephen Fuller, Ph.D., Robert Gordon, and Brigadier General Leif H. Hendrickson, USMC (retired).
hey amigo....here is a peso.....go call someone that might care!!!!
They just scatter like someone kicked an ant hill...and we don’t need any more illegals in Columbus.
lol
I’m pretty sure they will be moving to Irving.
Isn’t it amazing what happens when one simply enforces the law? It works every time it is tried. I know it is not as lucrative as keeping the cops on traffic detail. Maybe they should try something as simple as fining businesses that employee illegals...but Oh no that would be enforcing the law.
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that there are no simple solutions and if there were then these type of problems would be solved. That is a farce, what they often really mean is that there are no easy solutions that accommodate the lawbreakers or that the punishment is just unpleasant to administer. The IRS certainly doesn’t hesitate to administer punishment (the simple solution) to citizens nor do local tax assessors. It seems that they are all happy to enforce the law against individual citizens when it involves confiscating money. No one is there ready to cut them a break to help them keep their house or forgive their tax debt unless they pay for an attorney.
“The community is still completely devastated,” she said. “And for those obviously that have left, there's certainly no reason for them to go back.”
Yet, there is no sympathy for the AMERICAN communities that are being ruined one by one by dozens.
I love hardworking immigrants who enter legally and want to assimilate and weave themselves into the fabric of THIS country. It is fun and rewarding to watch them make the discoveries of everything that this country has to offer if you are willing to apply yourself.
I have no sympathy for illegal invaders who want to bring their third world way of living with them to the exclusion of becoming a good citizen to THIS country.
I have long written that they came here in ones and twos, by the carload and van load, mainly for the jobs. When the jobs dry up, most of them will leave the same manner, despite what the left claims.
This story appears to confirm this.
bump
Judging from the readers’ comments, there’s not much sympathy from them either.
Everybody sees this except those with an agenda and our politicians.
Yeah....I suppose if banks tightened security bank robbers would complain it was harming business too....
because they are losing THE BATTLE
and they KNOW it
Less drunk illegals careening down the road. That's a good sign.
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