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Illegal immigration becomes key issue
As Hispanic population rises, the changing demographics are influencing Va. politicians

BY PAUL BRADLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Oct 28, 2005


ALEXANDRIA -- Less than a decade ago, the combustible politics of illegal immigration were confined to places such as California, Texas and Arizona, all home to large concentrations of Hispanic newcomers.

But those days are gone.

As Virginia's immigrant population continues to surge, illegal immigration has become an issue commanding the attention of the public and policymakers alike this election year. To an extent unprecedented in the Old Dominion, questions around illegal immigration have become part of the race for the Executive Mansion.

"I think it's due to a restiveness with the kinds of rapid demographic changes we are seeing, not only in places like Virginia, but all over the country," said Michael Fix of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that tracks immigration trends. "And that restiveness finds its easiest expression when you talk about illegal immigration.

"It really has become a political symbol for a much larger phenomenon."

The debate over illegal immigration has been building for months.

Last summer, several Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly demanded, unsuccessfully, that Gov. Mark R. Warner declare a state of emergency to deal with illegal immigration. In Northern Virginia, Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, has made combating illegal immigration the centerpiece of his re-election campaign.

But nothing crystallized the issue as did the struggle over plans by Herndon officials to set up a town-sanctioned hiring hall where day laborers -- many of them illegal immigrants -- can meet up with potential employers.

Immediately after the Herndon Town Council concluded a marathon emotional public hearing by approving the hiring hall and agreed to spend $150,000 in public money to get it up and running, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore voiced his opposition. The swiftness of his response, according to political analysts, underscored his belief that illegal immigration is a potent political issue.

"It is the biggest issue I hear about other than transportation when I'm traveling in Northern Virginia," Kilgore said, belying public-opinion polls that consistently rank illegal immigration low on the list of issues important to voters.

Kilgore said that using public money to fund such a center would encourage illegal immigration.

"When I was asked about the Herndon situation . . . I was blunt to say that I don't support encouraging illegal activity," he said. "And what I see is that using taxpayer dollars merely encourages more illegal immigration into this country."

As attorney general, Kilgore was at the forefront of efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants, leading efforts to make it more difficult for them to get driver's licenses and receive public benefits.

But some Herndon officials bristled at Kilgore's comments. To them, Kilgore was intruding into an intensely local issue that had consumed town leaders for months. The town-backed hiring hall would replace an informal day-labor site -- a downtown 7-Eleven parking lot where up to 150 men gather each day in search of work -- that all parties agreed had grown into a public nuisance. The status quo, said Mayor Michael O'Reilly, would not do.

Kilgore's political opponents accused him of exploiting an emotional issue as he searched Northern Virginia for votes. Independent candidate H. Russell Potts Jr., while asserting he is a foe of illegal immigration, branded it "the worst kind of demagoguery."

During a Sept. 13 debate, Democratic candidate Timothy M. Kaine called Kilgore's approach a "mean-spirited approach to go after people who are trying to make a living, and go after local officials who are trying to deal with a tough problem."

Kaine said he opposes illegal immigration. But like Potts, he insists the enforcement of immigration laws is a federal responsibility.

"We shouldn't beat up on local officials who are trying to solve local problems," Kaine said.

While Kilgore has proposed asking the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to provide special training for 50 state troopers whose main job would be to arrest illegal aliens, Kaine opposes the idea. Most police agencies have resisted such a plan, he said, believing it would undermine efforts to fight gangs and strain already overtaxed resources.

Kaine said federal authorities have been unable or unwilling to enforce immigration law, pushing those responsibilities on states and localities.

A recent report by the federal Government Accountability Office makes the same point. Over the past several years, immigration workplace enforcement has dropped dramatically as the federal government has shifted its emphasis to combating terror threats in the post-Sept. 11 era.

Between 1999 and 2003, the last year for which figures are available, the number of work-site arrests by immigration agents fell by 83 percent, dropping from 2,849 arrests to 485, the GAO report found.

Kilgore, Kaine and Potts all favor penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants, another area in which the federal government is in retreat. The GAO report said the number of employers who are sanctioned for hiring illegal immigrants is plummeting.

According to the report, the change in emphasis means the federal government does not adequately police the kinds of businesses likely to hire illegal aliens, such as hotels, restaurants and construction companies. That has left states and localities to wrestle with the problem themselves.

Moreover, the state has been grappling with a meteoric rise in legal and illegal immigration. According to U.S. census figures, the state was home to 570,279 people born outside of the United States in 2000, an 83 percent increase from 1990.

More than 200,000 illegal immigrants live in Virginia, most of them in the Washington suburbs, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Many of them work in low-wage, unskilled jobs to which few Americans aspire.

Those kinds of numbers make illegal immigration a ripe issue for political campaigns, Fix said.

"To some extent, it's a protest against rapid demographic change," he said. "And it's also a protest against the government and its failure to secure the borders, especially after Sept. 11."