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Illegal immigration discussion widens
Town council directs staff to gather data on illegal immigration costs
By Allison Brophy Champion
Staff writer
Monday, January 29, 2007


Culpeper Town Council wants some facts, please, before it will consider creating a local task force on illegal immigration.

The question at hand, brought forward to the government arena in July by first-term Town Councilman Steve Jenkins, is what is the financial impact on the system of undocumented residents?

It’s not a new question; Prince William County recently studied it, determining that it spends about $3 million each year to provide services to illegal immigrants. At the same time, the study found the cost was far “outweighed by the economic benefit and money that this segment of the population brings into the county.”

Still, at its special retreat meeting Saturday morning, Culpeper Town Council directed its staff to collect the data, if available, on just how much it is costing Culpeper to serve illegal immigrants through the public school system, hospital, law enforcement agencies, jail, courts and department of human services.

“How much money is being spent teaching ESL (English-as-a-second language) through our school systems?” Jenkins asked, adding that such instruction inevitably “incorporates illegal immigration parents.”

Culpeper County Public School officials have repeatedly said, however, that it is unlawful for them to inquire about a student’s immigration status.

What about housing undocumented residents in the local jail, Jenkins said, how much is that costing?

“It may not be as much as some have been led to believe,” he said, mentioning the Prince William County study as a possible model for the Culpeper study.

“It could be more.”

To this point, Culpeper Town Council has been very hesitant to support or even comment on Jenkins’ illegal immigration-related initiatives, but Saturday’s less formal meeting evoked more-than-average discussion on the topic.

“There is no doubt in my mind that this could be a pretty severe problem as far as taxing our agencies,” said Councilman Duke duFrane. “But is it really our duty to solve it? I’m just not convinced we should spend local taxpayer dollars to solve a national problem.”

Town Councilman Chris Snider said he has supported the task force concept in the past, and suggested that it kick off with town staff asking each public agency for its financials on illegal immigration-related costs.

“And then move from there,” he said.

Town Councilman Jim Risner agreed that would be an appropriate place to start. He also cautioned against jumping to uninformed conclusions.

“A lot of people are saying, all Hispanics are illegal just because they are Hispanic,” he said. “It is very dividing for our community.”

Others think illegal immigrants are creating “a huge crime problem” in Culpeper, Risner said, adding, “We need the facts before we go forward.”

According to the latest, dated census figures, Culpeper County’s Hispanic population has more than doubled since 2000 to about 2,345. The total population of Culpeper is 45,372, County Planning Director John Egertson said Wednesday.

Once all the illegal immigration facts are collected, Jenkins said, the town could send a resolution to its federal legislators, saying, “Here is our problem.”

Town Councilman Chip Coleman, director of Culpeper Human Services, said he gets a little frustrated with the feds when it comes to their inaction.

“I read these letters from them saying, ‘How can I help you do my job because I’m not doing my job?” Coleman said. “It’s BS.”

For example, say illegal immigrants in Culpeper were thrown in jail because of their immigration status, he said, “The feds would like nothing better because we’re paying for it.”

Coleman added, “We need to go to the feds and tell them to do their job.”

That way local officials can worry about local issues, he said.

Mayor Pranas Rimeikis said more than 50 bills related to the immigration debate have been introduced this year by state legislators in the Virginia General Assembly, an indication that the state “is taking some kind of lead” on the issue.

Anyway, the mayor said, all of the public agencies supposedly impacted by illegal immigrants are county agencies.

“Where are the board of supervisors and the school board? Why are they not studying this?” said Rimeikis, who emigrated from Germany to Chicago with his family as a child.

And just like anything, he added, there are pros and cons.

“Do we want to look at the potential benefits to the community?” he asked of the new immigrant population, mentioning towns in N.J. and Georgia where the economy “dried up” after those localities attempted to enact illegal immigration laws.

Nonetheless, said Risner, “The bottom line is if people are breaking the law it needs to be addressed.

“But as it stand now, the notion that every Hispanic in our community has an illegal immigration tattoo on their forehead is dividing the community.”

Near the end of the discussion, Councilman Chris Snider asked council to think long and hard before agreeing to send town police officers for training from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to Jenkins, a local citizen has offered to pay for such training.

“It’s a slippery slope,” Snider said. “Once we have officers who are trained to deal with this issue, the federal government could turn around and say, ‘You take care of the problem.’

“I don’t want anymore unfunded mandates.”

Town Manager Brannon Godfrey, though not sure of the exact timetable, said some of the requested information from public agencies could be ready to present within a month or so.

“In the meantime,” said Vice Mayor Billy Yowell, “we need to be thinking about what are we going to do with this information when we get it?”