Thread: Liberal Suburbs Don't Avoid Heated Debates On Immigration

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02426.html

Liberal Suburbs Don't Avoid Heated Debates On Immigration

By Ernesto Londoño and Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 18, 2007; Page A01

The air was stuffy and hot inside a packed hall in Silver Spring during Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett's town hall meeting last month when a lanky man in the back row raised his hand.

What, he asked, is Leggett doing to curb the influx of illegal immigrants to the county?


"Immigration is a local issue," said the man, who gave his name only as Ryan. "Local government needs to respond."

Some people jeered and others applauded as the man elaborated. Uncharacteristically, Leggett lost his cool.

"Shut up and listen for a moment!" he cried, silencing the crowd. "We are not in the business of enforcing immigration issues."

Leggett articulated the stance that leaders in Montgomery and Fairfax County, the two largest suburbs in the Washington region, have taken in recent months: They have no plans to follow the lead of such counties as Prince William and Loudoun by passing legislation that targets illegal immigrants.

Such measures, they say, are unlikely to produce meaningful results, given the limits the courts have set and the limits on federal enforcement resources. "You're raising a public expectation about what you're going to do, but what you're really going to do is a lot less than that expectation," Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly said in a recent meeting with Washington Post editors and reporters.

But Connolly and Leggett, both Democrats, acknowledge that the debate over illegal immigration has become more impassioned within their borders, entwined for some constituents with issues such as crowded schools, rising crime and aging neighborhoods.

Help Save Herndon, a group that galvanized the outcry over a day labor center in the Fairfax town, is hosting a meeting today to launch a countywide branch, citing public discontent over a hiring site near a Centreville library. Montgomery's newly created branch of Help Save Maryland had two protests in the past month.

Even in these relatively liberal counties, considered friendly to their foreign-born populations, immigration threatens to become a wedge issue. "I worry that if we're not careful, we could have very long-lasting divisions," Leggett said in an interview.

Such divisions have emerged in many of the counties farther from Washington. This week, Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold (R) issued an executive order declaring that the county would sever contracts with any business caught employing illegal immigrants. The order is largely symbolic -- it includes no enforcement measures -- but underscores the county's growing unease on the issue.

In Loudoun and Prince William, leaders voted last month to mandate studies of what public services might be lawfully denied to undocumented residents.
Fairfax's more measured approach is counterproductive, Prince William's board chairman said yesterday. "They have clearly been the laggards," Corey A. Stewart (R) said. "If Fairfax doesn't begin to crack down on illegal immigration, they are quickly going to find themselves as the illegal immigrant sanctuary in Northern Virginia, particularly for the criminal element."

"I think that that's an emotional reaction," said Fairfax Supervisor Michael R. Frey (R-Sully), "but I don't think that there's any evidence to indicate that. All the evidence I've seen indicates that people live near where they have family, or friends. . . . The second is jobs and housing."


Unlike Loudoun and Prince William, which both experienced a sudden boom in immigration population in the past five years, the District and its closer-in suburbs have had steady growth over the past two decades. Elected officials in Fairfax and Montgomery have developed outreach programs for various immigrant communities and businesses and have cultivated more-established members for campaign contributions and votes.

These relationships help temper the immigration debate.

"We don't see this as a problem in Fairfax County," said Sami Kalifa, past president of the Annandale Chamber of Commerce, who emigrated from Jordan in 1969 and owns a flower shop. "The immigrants are established immigrants. They've been here for a long time, and they are really building the county. They are part of it. . . . That nice mix makes it what it is."

Grace Rivera-Oven is a Bolivian immigrant who has lived in Montgomery for two decades and has advocated for day laborers and other immigrants. She has also hosted coffees for politicians and speaks regularly with county officials.

Rivera-Oven said she doesn't think the opponents of illegal immigration are likely to make political inroads any time soon: "I think people in Montgomery County are more well rounded and politically savvy than to elect people with very narrow points of view."

But she said these opponents have successfully spread what she considers misconceptions about the ramifications of illegal immigration. "They're blamed for everything: from usage of hospitals, school money. But there's really no facts to back this up," she said. "It's easy to blame all the ills of the world on this group, because they don't have a real political voice."

Much of the tension over immigration in Fairfax and Montgomery has surfaced in public debates over creating day labor centers in Herndon and Gaithersburg.

Gaithersburg eventually abandoned the project, and Montgomery County set aside a piece of land just outside the city limits to open the day labor center this spring. Herndon officials opened a center in December 2005 and are searching for an operator who will verify that workers are in the country legally, something the nonprofit group that currently runs the center has refused to do.

The debate over immigration has also reached higher decibels as more foreign-born residents move beyond established enclaves and the new communities adjust, said Gaithersburg Police Chief John King. For instance, he said, Wheaton and Silver Spring residents have grown accustomed to the sight of Hispanic men loitering in a commercial area, but when it happens in Gaithersburg, some consider it intimidating.

"The majority of county taxpayers do not support the ongoing inflow of an uneducated, aggressive population that seeks as many services as it can get while avoiding paying taxes in order to feed its ignorant sense of greed," Silver Spring resident Sandra Pontius wrote in an e-mail to Leggett.

Ellen Albert, president of the Winterset Varsity Civic Association in Annandale, said an association meeting does not go by without a discussion of how illegal immigrants are "draining our resources." Albert, a computer consultant who is a Democrat, said residents feel "like strangers in their own land," overwhelmed by signs in foreign languages, neighbors who do not speak English and gang graffiti.


The political action in Virginia's outer counties has also emboldened opponents in older neighborhoods, where some fear their communities will become magnets for undocumented immigrants if leaders fail to act.
Her state delegate, Democrat David L. Bulova, sent out a survey before this year's legislative session, asking constituents to rank issues of concern. Transportation came in first. Illegal immigration came in second. Republicans and Democrats alike are upset, he said.

NumbersUSA, a national organization that lobbies for reduced immigration, says its membership has more than doubled in Virginia and Maryland since the beginning of the year.

Nearly 12,000 people were registered in Virginia, about twice as many as in Maryland. Among congressional districts, Virginia's 10th and 11th -- which include most of Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties -- had the most members as of late last month, a NumbersUSA spokeswoman said. In Maryland, the 6th District, which includes Frederick County and northern Montgomery, had the highest number.

"What was invisible to many citizens for many years is more visible," said Montgomery County Police Chief H. Thomas Manger, who worked in Fairfax before moving to Maryland. "People who didn't have an opinion about it now do."

Federal enforcement efforts, including last month's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on El Pollo Rico, a Wheaton restaurant whose owners were charged with hiring illegal immigrants and money laundering, have strengthened the perception that illegal immigration fuels crime.

In Fairfax, complaints have surged about crowded houses, an issue officials say is the source of most local outcry over immigration -- even if the two topics are not always linked.

But the county has adopted no measures aimed directly at illegal immigrants.

Instead, officials emphasize that the county's policy is to provide illegal immigrants with public assistance only as required under federal law, such as with emergency medical care.

It has responded to crowding complaints by forming a multi-agency "strike force" of inspectors to crack down on violations.

"We're focused on outcomes and behavior. We're not focused on what is your status," Connolly said. He said the county staff is preparing an analysis of the cost of illegal immigration to Fairfax.

Bulova said he has felt constituent heat over the topic since he went door-knocking in 2005 in his central Fairfax district.

He was one of the few Democrats who voted this year for a measure that would have made it a crime for illegal immigrants to set foot in Virginia.

"We're a nation of immigrants, so we absolutely want to respect that," Bulova said. But, he said, "if you're here illegally and you get in trouble, then we shouldn't be turning a blind eye. That's what I'm hearing from folks."

But she said these opponents have successfully spread what she considers misconceptions about the ramifications of illegal immigration. "They're blamed for everything: from usage of hospitals, school money. But there's really no facts to back this up," she said.

NO FACTS!! Are you NUTS?? Nothing good be MORE backed-up with facts than illegal alien problems, ESPECIALLY hospitals and schools.

He was one of the few Democrats who voted this year for a measure that would have made it a crime for illegal immigrants to set foot in Virginia.

The Democrats are going to have to wake-up and realize that this is NOT a political stance. It equally affects everybody!

Corey A. Stewart (R) said. "If Fairfax doesn't begin to crack down on illegal immigration, they are quickly going to find themselves as the illegal immigrant sanctuary in Northern Virginia, particularly for the criminal element."

"I think that that's an emotional reaction," said Fairfax Supervisor Michael R. Frey (R-Sully), "but I don't think that there's any evidence to indicate that. All the evidence I've seen indicates that people live near where they have family, or friends. . . . The second is jobs and housing."


How do these people utter these things with a straight face?

Does he not think people will move to escape child molestors, murderers, theives, vandalism, etc.?

NNTrixie, these people can say these things because they don't have to live in the effected/infected areas, so its not a problem for them, but soon they will have a few dozen of these fine folks move into one of the houses in their $800,000-$900,000 neighborhood and I have a feeling their tune will suddenly change.It is already happening in many of the older exclusive neighborhoods Mr. Frey's will not be immune.Especially with the housing market,many people rent because they can't get their house sold.Won't it be convenient for Mr. Frey to have his lawncare,maid,baby sitter and handyman right on his street all in the same house.



Head 'em up, move 'em out Rawhide!

Originally Posted by Rawhide

NNTrixie, these people can say these things because they don't have to live in the effected/infected areas, so its not a problem for them, but soon they will have a few dozen of these fine folks move into one of the houses in their $800,000-$900,000 neighborhood and I have a feeling their tune will suddenly change.It is already happening in many of the older exclusive neighborhoods Mr. Frey's will not be immune.Especially with the housing market,many people rent because they can't get their house sold.Won't it be convenient for Mr. Frey to have his lawncare,maid,baby sitter and handyman right on his street all in the same house.



Head 'em up, move 'em out Rawhide!

:Poetic justice====