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Northern VA debating immigration? Take a number
In Culpeper, there are a lot of figures tossed out to support one side or another

BY KIRAN KRISHNAMURTHY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 17, 2006


CULPEPER Steve Jenkins told his Town Council colleagues he had 164 signatures on a petition urging them to enforce an ordinance regulating how many people can live under one roof.

Jenkins, who had gathered the signatures during a contentious meeting he hosted on illegal immigration, is pushing to crack down on undocumented residents, as well as the landlords and employers who house and hire them.

"If I had held my meeting at the high school football stadium, I would probably have 2,000 signatures," he told fellow council members last week.

Numbers -- in dollars drained, in occupants allowed, in signatures gathered, in undocumented residents living in Culpeper -- are key to the debate over illegal immigration in this town of 15,000 and in the surrounding county.

Jenkins, who says he is not targeting any single race or culture, contends that undocumented residents are siphoning tax dollars from local schools, social services and the court system. He says as many as 850 children in Culpeper County schools could be undocumented.

The school system will spend an estimated $8,575 on each of its projected 7,411 students this year: $3,443 in local dollars, $4,721 from the state and $411 from Uncle Sam.

Culpeper school officials said last week they could not say how many students are undocumented.

"We can't give that out because we don't ask, and we're not allowed to ask," said Marla McKenna, a schools spokeswoman.

It seems the figure Jenkins cites is the 855 Hispanic students in Culpeper schools. McKenna said it is irresponsible to assume all of those students are undocumented. "We know not all of our Hispanic students are undocumented," she said.

"We really can't come up with a number, and we don't want to," she added. "All of our children come to us as equals."

Jenkins says the figure was a raw number, and he said he wants to set up a task force to "look at the details behind the data."

Still, Jenkins and his backers say that not all Culpeper residents are paying an equal share or playing by the same rules.

"I have 13 people living in a house right across from me," Steve Peacock told the council Tuesday night, adding that those who live in the house appear to be extended family members.

The town's ordinance allows an unlimited number of people related by blood or marriage to live in a house, as well as two boarders. Separately, the ordinance permits up to five unrelated people to share a house. Last week, upon Jenkins' motion, the Town Council agreed to look into hiring a zoning enforcement officer.

Jenkins says he does not object to immediate family members living together. "But your cousin three times removed? That's stretching it," he said. "With the demographics and the change in the county, it's created some problems."

Local Hispanics take particular offense to Jenkins' efforts. The county's Hispanic population has more than doubled since 2000, reaching about 2,345 of the county's 42,530 residents, or 5.5 percent.

David Marciniak, who moved to Culpeper from Arizona a year ago, objects to Jenkins' expressed desire to tighten the ordinance by limiting the number of extended family members who can live in a home. "I just don't think it's the place of a government to define what a family is," he said.

Meanwhile, Culpeper officials plan to write their congressional delegation to ask for federal intervention and assistance.

Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, recently wrote town and county officials to offer help but said he does not expect any action on Capitol Hill until after the Nov. 7 election. The Senate and the House are at a stalemate over how to handle illegal immigration. It comes down to votes more numbers.