And the frustration of communities continues...


http://www.potomacnews.com/servlet/Sate ... 0853&path=

Covington asks cost of immigrants


By KEITH WALKER
kwalker@potomacnews.com
Friday, December 15, 2006


What do you think?



If he can get a handle on the how much illegal immigrants cost the county, Supervisor W.S. "Wally" Covington III, R-Brentsville, might just try and charge it off to the feds.
"It'll be symbolic, but I'd like to send a bill to the federal government," Covington said. "They're the ones that haven't addressed this issue."

During a recent Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting, Covington asked County Executive Craig Gerhart to figure out how many illegal immigrants live in the county and what kind of burden they place on county services.

Covington chafes at the federal government's lack of action. "Their failure to address it is another mandate that's come back down on local government. We're getting hammered," he said.

Covington said he hears complaints from constituents about illegal immigration causing overcrowding in the county's schools, but no one has ever come up with any numbers to substantiate the claims.

"We always talk about having problems in terms of all these costs, but nobody ever sits down and adds them up," he said.

Adding up the costs would help in the search for solutions, Covington said.

"I can't move forward with suggestions on how we solve problems without knowing, 'What are the real costs?' " Covington said.

Covington made the request to gather information and put a "face" on illegal immigration.

He said he understands the difficulties of counting those who do not wish to be counted, and his curiosity isn't designed to go after illegal immigrants.

"I'm not trying to pile on illegal immigrants. I'm trying to pile on the federal government. They need to deal with the issue," he said.

County spokeswoman Liz Bahrns said the complex request, which Covington made Tuesday, is broad and covers several county agencies.

When the county staff receives such a request, it has two weeks to respond.

"Given the scope of this task, I would expect it to take every bit of the two weeks to pull the figures together … or perhaps longer," Bahrns said.

Covington said he simply wants to find out if the problem is decreasing or increasing in the area.

"We're never going to get a perfect number on that, but if we can start to define that, we can perhaps come up with some solutions to the problem," he said.

Covington said the request was his way of trying to figure out how to approach the problem.

"We haven't come up with a plan that works and it hurts the immigrants and it hurts the local government," he said.