I cannot speak for what is happening in Fairfax County, but in Prince William this has nothing to do with breaking laws.  There is considerable anger swelling over several unrelated problems (lack of affordable housing, lack of meaningful employement in Manassas for young people and the natural hike in small crimes that comes from young people unhappy with their lack of opportunity, way too much traffic, way too little time spent with families at home, and a sad lack of community with neighbors because of our devisive suburban sprawl growth patterns).

So to counteract these problems, all people without the means to live the suburban American dream are doing things that offend their wealthy suburban dream living neighbors.  Those people are then angry at the wrong things (too many hispanics living in one town house next door, except their own young adult children are forced to do the same).  Too many latinos hanging out at a 7-11 looking for work (except that local kids without decent work have been doing that for decades).  Too much vandalism and crime (what exactly is new here?  What does this have to do with immigrants?).

So in Price William County we are dealing with racism by a few very slick and perfidious nutjobs, stirring up and manipulating the angers and frustrations of a very large number of people who are all too willing to be led around by the nose into thinking this is an immigration issue.  It's not.

Locally it's a smart-growth issue, and perhaps an education issue.
Federally it's an economy issue (to get more opportunity for our H.S. grads than working part-time at sub-minimum wage waiting tables, or at minimum plus a buck for doing retail in a big-box store selling Chinese junk trading goods).

We are a nation of Laws; the doors of America are wide open for all who come here to make our nation great.  We have norms and customs and procedures you need to follow to get legal entry into the country.

The line is too long never worked at the DMV or at the department stores around Christmas time.  Line being too long is no excuse.  That is the complaint of many illegal aliens that the process takes too long.  Every immigrant who has come here in the past fifty years or more have all stood in line weather it was at Ellis Island or at the US Consulates around the world to get an entry visa. 

The fact that many on the left wants to legalized these Illegal Aliens who have come here illegally spits in the face of all immigrants who have come here the right way.

So, Scott you cheapen the value of being an American by your Amnesty stand.  You, Gerry Connolly and all those who want to reward illegal activities, and this includes President Bush, John McCain and all in the Senate who voted for Amnesty.

AMNESTY IS REWARDING LAW BREAKERS!!!

1) legal immigrants are NOT the ones using this argument - I find that both telling and interesting

2) no one is advocating that we allow anyone to cut in any line - in fact the entire line metaphor is a Republican talking point invented to get people riled up about a fallacy.  I am arguing for no line at all (I am in the minority there though).  My argument is that you and I as people born in the United States should enjoy no special priveledges that people born in Burma, Tibet, Mexico, Brazil, or Japan cannot enjoy.  How is that just?  How is that fair?

I'm unconcerned about the "length of line" because the whole line metaphor is crap.  It does not apply.  What we have is a way of life that looks incredibly attractive to most of the world, an incredible marketing campaign (Hollywood movies) exported to the rest of the world telling them how great it is here, and then we try to prevent people from moving here?  How can you blame anyone for wanting to migrate here?

That being said - what they get when they get here is not really what they saw on TV and in the Movies.  Sure there are opportunities that they may not have had back home, but there is also a whole lot of hard work.

Today's immigrants, both legal and illegal, are no more afraid of doing the work in persuit of that illusive dream of success than they were in the 19th century when the immigrants were from Europe and China.

I don't reward illegal activities, but I do recognize when occasionally a law was written poorly or for purely political reasons and makes no sense at all.  When that happens we need to toss out the law, not the decent, hard-working human beings who are just trying to make ends meet and make a better life for their family.

Oh - and as for the whole terrorism buggaboo - that is also bull-feathers.  All of the 9/11 terrorists were in this country legally.  All of the Oklahoma City terrorists were American Citizens.  In fact most terrorism that has happened in the U.S. has been by Americans.

Gah!

If their is a law we don't like we try to change it through legislation.  It is the law of the land.  What part of ILLEGAL are you not getting?  So, would you look the other way if someone broke into your home and night and stole your money and stuff, then on the way out he said I am only taking it because I don't have it?  Would you call him the "Honorable Thief"  NO!  He would be a Thief.

These people are breaking the law when they come across the border I feel the same way about Canadians who would walk across the border from the North and come to America (which they do so they don't have to wait in line for medical services) 

Terrorists well 3 of the Fort Dix Six came across our southern border.

Scott it's not immigrant it's about the Illegal Immigrants!

That is why I am voting for better legislators than the ones we have now (many of whom cannot even be bothered to read the bills they vote on).

The law of the land clearly makes this issue of immigration a national/federal one, not a state, county, nor municipal one.  Our nation is built upon a tradition of immigration.

What I see happening in PWC is not about legal vrs illegal, it is racism for some, and cultural isolationism for others... hell, I feel ostracized in Manassas for being a recent (1989) immigrant to Virginia from another state.  I happen to be white, Buddhist, and a euro-mutt ethnically (mixed Polish, Irish, Czech, German, English, Scottish); and because I was not born and raised in Virginia I am not welcome some places.  I can only imagine what it is like for Asian-Americans or African-Americans.

This "issue" should be discussed during a federal election, and not be used as a political gun during local elections.

BTW - I still feel that a human being is a human being and our planet has too many inequalities with nation-states doing their own thing.  Though it is a generations off goal, I'd like to see all nations lose sovereignty over then next millenia - because what happens in China does impact us here in Virginia now.

Also feeling isolated in VA for not being from VA well... that's just how it is.  My brother moved to Maryland and it's the same thing their if you haven't had generations living in Maryland you're a carpet bagger.  The same is true in many states in the South.  That all goes back to In Maryland the Federal Government coming in, and arresting a freely elected Legislature.  Hence Maryland's state Song until in 1970 still had the line about the Tyrants heal upon my shore Maryland my Maryland? referring to President Lincoln.

In the South being occupied by Union solders after the War Between the States.  While in the North you won't find this distrust of the Federal Government.  The State of Texas to this day still elects all of its judges including the ones on the State Supreme Court, for many of the same reasons.

Remember the Virginia was under the federal heal after the War Between the States.  It's a deep seeded cultural thing of not trusting outsiders.  Because after the War Between the States, many Yankee Carpet Baggers came down and stole land from southerners... and all southerners didn't own slaves.  The war was actually fought over States Rights.  Pres. Jefferson Davis wrote a letter to President Lincoln saying he would abolish slavery in the Confederacy, if the North would recognize their right to exist as an Independent Nation "Confederate States of America" 

So, you see that is the root of the distrust of the Federal Government in the South.  While you compare those in say New York they will be of a much different mind set.  They have never been occupied like the south was after the Civil War.  It's like those in Poland have a distrust of Germans and Soviets since they both occupied and butchered the People of Poland.  Also strange but true, if you look at what Sherman did during the Civil war he would be tried today for War Crimes as would General Grant and prob General Lee too.

Don't get me wrong my family wasn't even in the US when the War Between the States occurred; half were in Poland and the other half in Austria. 

I do feel there simply is no way to put the horses back into the barn.

The bright side -- and it is a very bright one indeed -- is that many of our society's brightest intellectual gems are immigrants.  In a recent discussion with a Montgomery County friend whose children have been in high achievement schools,  she pointed out that immigrants are a high proportion of those schools.  I said the same was true in Fairfax.  Our local "gifted and talented" school is predominately made up of students whose parents were not born in this country.

My Montgomery friends said -- "the immigrant baiters just don't get it, do they?"

She agreed with me (and we're not agreers by nature) that the fear mongers are playing on another angle -- "be afraid because your above average kids may no longer be a lock for the better schools." When you read some of the anti-immigrant political literature being circulated look at it from this angle as well.

Blub from the source :
The number of immigrants nationwide reached an all-time high of 37.5 million in 2006, affecting incomes and education levels in many cities across the country. But the effects have not been uniform.