Royse presents illegal immigration plan


By KEITH WALKER
kwalker@potomacnews.com
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

http://www.potomacnews.com

If elected, Christopher Royse says he would run the Woodbridge District the way Rudolph Giuliani ran New York City when he was mayor.

Royse, a Republican, is one of four candidates seeking election to the seat that will be vacated when Supervisor Hilda M. Barg, D-Woodbridge, retires from the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in January.

Democratic candidate Frank Principi said two points of Royse's four-point plan to stop illegal immigration would create a "police state."

Independents Steven Keen and Luis Ramirez have their own views about Royse's plan.

Royse would have the police issue citations for everything from littering to loitering to jay walking and report to the board weekly.

"This is the Giuliani model for New York. If you focus on the little things, the big things will get cleaned up," he said.

The second point of his plan would be to monitor businesses that hire illegal immigrants, even though a federal judge struck down an ordinance in Hazelton, Pa., that sought to fine employers who hired illegal immigrants and landlords who rented to them.

His reasoning is that if employers are hiring illegal immigrants, they are bound to be breaking other laws as well.

"The federal legal tests say we can't go after businesses for hiring illegal aliens, but if you're knowingly hiring illegal aliens, I will request that you be put under scrutiny by the proper authorities," Royse said. "If you don't clean up the way you do business, we'll get you on something."

Principi said there's got to be a better way.

"Congress has the authority to implement laws that will allow us to enforce stricter fines and penalties on employers, and that would be the approach I would take," Principi said.

"Let's do it through the legislative process," he said.

Keen said Royse's plan fits in with what he's been saying all along.

"It sounds to me like he's been listening to me," Keen said, "What we really need to do is enforce our zoning laws -- the laws that have been on the books for a long time."

A resolution passed last week by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors requires police to check legal status of people they stop if they find probable cause to do so.

Keen said the county wouldn't have probable cause to check on employers' hiring practices.

"The county would not know whether somebody was hiring someone [illegal] unless we check immigration status," Keen said.

Ramirez said the move would have other, unintended consequences.

"If he's going to do that in the community, that's going to effect the economics of this area," Ramirez said. "What he's going to create is a problem, a fight between the police and some members of the community."

Royse's third point would include appointing a committee to be called the "Woodbridge Immigration Reform Committee" that would take complaints about people hiring illegal immigrants and overcrowding, as well as complaints of discrimination.

"The reports I get, I will hand off officially from my office to the appropriate authorities," Royse said.

The committee would also serve as an advocacy group to hold seminars on voters' rights, how to avoid predatory lending, how to become U.S. citizens. Royse also said he would work with the human rights commission and visitors' bureau to market Woodbridge as a "multi-cultural, immigrant-friendly, safe community."

Principi didn't like the watchdog aspects of the committee.

"This is not a 'gotcha' county," he said. "I don't want to live in a police state. The people I've talked to don't want to live in a police state. Businesses don't want to operate in a police state."

The latter of the committee's mandates would lack credibility, Principi said.

"You can't create this poison in the community - this divisiveness - and then go out and market it and promote it as multi-cultural. There's something wrong with that picture," he said.

Ramirez agreed.

"It seems to me he's creating the problem," Ramirez said.

Keen said there's already an easy fix for the overcrowding portion of the equation.

"Right now the supervisors' office gives them the telephone number for zoning to call them and report it," Keen said. "What we will do if I'm elected is my aide will field those calls and we'll ask the county to find out and get back to the citizens."

The fourth point in Royse's plan would be a clause that would enable the supervisors to rescind the ordinance in times of emergency, when legal citizens might not be able to prove legal status.