Thread: Manassas restricts who can live under 1 roof target illegals

Under the ordinance, the City Council narrowed the definition of "family" to mean that extended families can't live in a home. The former definition allowed virtually any relatives to live in a single-family house, as long as the total didn't exceed the occupancy limit.

I don't think it should matter who is living with who. The only thing that should matter is HOW MANY people are living together.

There are better ways for the City Council to deal with the problem of illegal immigration. This ordinance seems a bit wacky to me.

I just don't think it will WORK. I agree--it really doesn't matter WHO is living with you if there are TWENTY of them. These people have BIG FAMILIES so, if that is their only criteria, they aren't getting to the root of the problem. I also agree with you, LIZ--the devil is in the details. HOW do they think they are going to enforce this. I mean, are they going to have a squad of law enforcement officers going from door to door doing head counts??? It seems to me that this is going to be an expensive and IMPOSSIBLE ordinance to enforce and that their resources could be better used in other areas where they really COULD make a difference.

What I foresee as the problem is that the only way they are going to investigate these violations is if neighbors complain. So, the police make a housecall and HOW are they going to determine who actually is LIVING in the house and who is just VISITING?? Certainly, the people aren't going to ADMIT they live there if they know they are going to be OUSTED.

This seems to me to be something that LANDLORDS would have to enforce--NOT the city government. I guess they could fine landlords if they could determine they were in violation but that is going to be the problem.