Thread: Chesterfield Seeks Info on Illegal Immigrants

Chesterfield seeks information on illegal immigrants
County leaders vote to research their numbers, financial burden

BY MEREDITH BONNY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 1, 2007

Chesterfield County leaders want to know how many illegal immigrants live in the county and what financial burden they have on taxpayers.

"I want to know how much it's costing and what we can do to curtail" it, Board of Supervisors Chairman Kelly E. Miller said of illegal immigration into the county.

At Miller's urging, the board unanimously voted yesterday to ask staff to prepare a report by the end of April.

He also wants staff to consider whether Chesterfield can require contractors who do business with the county to prove that they don't hire illegal immigrants. He suggested creating occupancy restrictions for homes and finding out how many children who do not have legal status attend county schools.

Miller said that he also wanted to know how much it costs to keep illegal immigrants in the county jail.

Shortly after the board's decision, the issue had already drawn concern from some community mem- bers.

Michel Zajur, president and founder of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, disagreed that illegal immigrants place a strain on local services.

"It's quite the contrary," he said. "They are not a burden, but [rather] an economic windfall."


Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, said, "These local ordinances don't spring so much from a concern of illegal immigration as they do about growing populations of people from other countries."

Miller responded, saying the information he requested does not take aim at any particular nationality.

"It's not just Hispanic," he said. "One [group] is no better than the other."

The question extends beyond Chesterfield.

In Culpeper, the Town Council has asked staff there for similar data before deciding whether to create a task force to study the financial effect of illegal immigration on local government. Prince William County this year determined that it spends about $3 million a year for services to illegal immigrants but that the cost was outweighed by the economic benefit.

Chesterfield's Miller raised the issue at yesterday's meeting after County Administrator Lane B. Ramsey gave his formal resignation. He will retire at the end of July.

After thanking Ramsey for his service to the county, Miller asked for the board's support on the immigration issue.

Willis said Miller's requests make him nervous.

"There have been a rash of localities across the country deciding they are going to take on the immigration issues themselves," he said. "The principal concern for civil-rights organizations is that the more local the enforcement of immigration laws, the more likely prejudice based on nationality is likely to be a factor."

Ramsey said the county has done a lot to reach out to those who do not speak English.

"We put many programs in place to address language barriers so that the county can best serve people that need county services," he said.

Chesterfield was among the first localities to translate its Web site into Spanish and has Hispanic outreach employees in the Social Services Department and others. Of the county's 284,956 residents, 13,069 are Hispanic or Latino, according to 2005 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

In other matters, the board agreed to advertise Chesterfield's fiscal 2008 budget based on a real estate tax rate of 99 cents, saying they wanted to ease the burden on county taxpayers suffering sticker shock from recent reassessments.

On average, assessments on existing property rose 16.6 percent.

The tax rate is currently $1.04 per $100 of assessed value.


Contact staff writer Meredith Bonny at mbonny@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6452.
Media General News Service contributed to this report.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Sa ... th=%21news

Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, said, "These local ordinances don't spring so much from a concern of illegal immigration as they do about growing populations of people from other countries."

I have yet to see the ACLU Actually do anything to help people they claim to be concerned about.
How much of their money do they send to other countries ?
How many illegal aliens does Kent Willis Have living in his home ?
Thats what I thought !
What I see from the ACLU is everything they want they expect American familys to pay for .

Let me see, growing populations from other countries. Yes, local governments are getting concerned. The cost to support these illegals are getting larger and larger every day and they either don't pay taxes or pay very little while the US citizens have to pay more and more. The cost is going to overwhelm the taxpayer base.

Chesterfield was among the first localities to translate its Web site into Spanish and has Hispanic outreach employees in the Social Services Department and others. Of the county's 284,956 residents, 13,069 are Hispanic or Latino, according to 2005 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

What group of MORONS thought it would make good economic sense to spend that much effort, time and resources to CATER to only 4.5% of the freakin population???????? These must be some very rich/influential latinos to justify that kind of expenditure. Economic windfall my azz! Logic? We don need no steekin logeek.