Thread: Culpeper gaining attention over immigration issue

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Immigration on the Web growing
Culpeper gaining attention over issue

Allison Brophy Champion
Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006


Small-town Culpeper continues to gain widespread attention in print and on the World Wide Web for its ongoing conversation on illegal immigration.

Last week the Washington Post published an article, “Culpeper Officials Targeting Illegal Immigrants,” that sparked reaction on at least two Internet sites.

In the Post story, Nick Miroff writes, some Culpeper “town officials want to crack down on illegal immigration with zoning ordinances that curb the number of people who can live together in a single-family house,” and they want to do it “aggressively,” he added.

Town Council is in fact looking into creating a zoning enforcement position to “actively” patrol residential zoning all infractions, including too tall grass and weeds and/or more than five unrelated people living together. On Monday, the council’s planning committee recommended that the new position be created on a part-time basis, but it has yet to come back before Town Council for a final vote.

Town and county officials also recently voted to send a letter to Culpleper’s congressional delegation seeking guidance on how to deal with illegal immigration at the local level.
Town Councilman Steve Jenkins initiated talk on the complicated subject matter just weeks after taking office in July, in turn shifting some of the national focus on Culpeper.

An influx?
Jenkins, a former member of the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors, proposes that Culpeper follow the lead of Hazleton, Pa., in enacting local laws that would fine employers and landlords for doing business with illegal immigrants. Other Town Council members have yet to get behind his ideas, and some have come out against them.

Still, Jenkins’ initiatives have generated substantial public opinion from many angles, culminating in a town hall meeting and protest march earlier this month.

“We have an influx of illegal immigrants in our community, and we need to get a handle on the situation now,” Jenkins told the Washington Post. “My family has lived here for generations, but the demographics have changed the complexion of Culpeper, and I haven’t been pleased with that.”

He said the new immigrant population is draining local resources.

Culpeper Mayor Pranas Rimeikis, on the other hand, told the Post that “the perception that there’s a significant drain on social services” is difficult to quantify.

“We haven’t gotten any reports, so we don’t really have a handle on to what extent there is a problem.” The mayor said he does not support “going after employers … or going after landlords” who hire or house undocumented residents.

In the Post article, Jenkins proposed setting up a task force to “flush out” statistics about the monetary impacts of illegal immigrants in the Culpeper community. He felt the examples would be many.

Culpeper shopkeeper Martin Bernal, however, feels just the opposite. He came to Culpeper from Mexico in 1988 and has been a self-appointed leader for the Hispanic community.

“Culpeper’s economy depends on Hispanic workers,” he told the Post. “We’re easy to pick on.”

Socialist Worker
Elizabeth Schulte, a writer with Chicago-based Socialist Worker Online, took exception to Jenkins’ comments in her recent article, “Anti-immigrant racism turned respectable.”

“In towns and states across the country, local politicians invigorated by the national backlash against immigrants are pushing through their own punitive legislation,” she writes at socialistworker.org.

Schulte further referenced the Culpeper Town Council’s recent steps toward hiring a zoning enforcer. She viewed the action as aimed at “targeting and driving out immigrants,” and quoted Jenkins’ comments from the Post in her article.

“New segregationists like Jenkins regularly blame illegal aliens” for draining local resources, Schulte writes, listing numerous examples of towns and states cracking down on illegal immigration.

“While politicians are vilifying immigrants to divert attention from their own failures, racists have been emboldened to take their own actions,” she writes.

For example, the Young Americans for Freedom group at the University of Michigan is planning “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” games on campuses statewide, according to Schulte. Others claim the immigration debate is increasing violent crimes against Hispanics.

“In Laguna Beach, two men attacked day laborers at a hiring center earlier this month,” Schulte writes. “Despite the fact that witnesses called police and the two men were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and a hate crime, the assailants were still not charged two days after their arrest.

“This is the grim consequence of the immigration debate.”
The International Socialist Organization, which follows the teachings of Karl Marx, has members in about 40 cities nationwide, including Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

The Gringa in San Miguel
In her blog, “Deb” of Fairfax weighed in on the local debate in a recent posting, “Avoiding the Crowd: Immigrants & Zoning in Culpeper, Va.” She also referenced the recent Post article at her site entitled, “The Gringa in San Miguel,” at livingethnography.blogspot.com.

Deb responded to Jenkins’ comment about not being pleased with the changing “complexion of Culpeper” with, “That just about says it all.”

“Like many of Culpeper’s residents, I hate to see rural towns engulfed in suburban expansion, but I find his position disingenuous,” she wrote.

“What about the 3,000 (presumably Anglo) residents who have moved into town? Do they not drive cars and send their kids to Culpeper schools? Do they not also strain local infrastructure?”
Deb suggested that Culpeper residents could better serve their community by addressing “the problem of sprawl” in the county.

“They should also be mindful of the fact that development also CREATES a need for immigrant labor (someone has to care for their lawns and clean those McMansions while their owners are commuting 2-3 hours each day),” she wrote.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or abrophy@starexponent.com.

Socialist Worker
Elizabeth Schulte, a writer with Chicago-based Socialist Worker Online, took exception to Jenkins’ comments in her recent article, “Anti-immigrant racism turned respectable.”

“In towns and states across the country, local politicians invigorated by the national backlash against immigrants are pushing through their own punitive legislation,” she writes at socialistworker.org.

Schulte further referenced the Culpeper Town Council’s recent steps toward hiring a zoning enforcer. She viewed the action as aimed at “targeting and driving out immigrants,” and quoted Jenkins’ comments from the Post in her article.

“New segregationists like Jenkins regularly blame illegal aliens” for draining local resources, Schulte writes, listing numerous examples of towns and states cracking down on illegal immigration.

“While politicians are vilifying immigrants to divert attention from their own failures, racists have been emboldened to take their own actions,” she writes.

For example, the Young Americans for Freedom group at the University of Michigan is planning “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” games on campuses statewide, according to Schulte. Others claim the immigration debate is increasing violent crimes against Hispanics.

NUFF SAID

“Culpeper’s economy depends on Hispanic workers,” he told the Post. “We’re easy to pick on.”

Boo Freakin Hoo

I have copycats!!!!!!!!!

Poor misguided illegal alien supporters.

Dixie
"The Texas Blogger"

Originally Posted by redbadger

“Culpeper’s economy depends on Hispanic workers,” he told the Post. “We’re easy to pick on.”

Boo Freakin Hoo

LMAO