Please watch the first of a series of YouTube videos featuring Dr. Stephen Fuller. With Dr. Fuller's impeccable credentials, I think this one will finally wake people up.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Below are the points I made this morning to the Board of Supervisors through email:
I feel very strongly that we cannot afford to pay for the expensive Probable Cause aspect of the Immigration Resolution, even if we wanted to. While it provides limited benefits, and are NO LIMITS to the legal fees our county will incur due to charges of racial profiling (especially without cameras in patrol cars), and the economic impact, while difficult to estimate in terms of dollars, Fuller said, is that we will be the handicapped county compared to our neighbors for years to come, mostly due to negative perception in the marketplace.
I support funding 287G. But my not-so-old parents and everyone else in Prince William County will be less safe if our Police Officers are burdened with the legal conundrum of Probable Cause. During a time when budget constraints bar us from attaining an officer-to-citizen ratio that compares favorably with other Virginia counties, I feel very uneasy about a policy that could potentially take an Officer off the streets each time he or she detains or questions someone not carrying an I.D.
I do sympathize with concerns about neighborhood issues. But the Immigration Resolution has already proven to provide only temporary benefits to a small minority of residents who would prefer to have empty houses rather than neighbors who appear to be undocumented and/or indigent. I've now come to realize that even this will not be worth the cost. The vacancies and foreclosures this policy is causing will push these neighborhoods into further deterioration, devalue both residential and commercial property, reduce our tax base, and thus require more reductions in county services in coming years.
This morning in today's Washington Post, one of my fellow supervisors, Woodbridge Supervisor Frank Principi, proposed repealing the cracking down on illegal immigration. Please email Supervisor Principi and the whole Board at BOCS@pwcgov.org and ask them to continue the crackdown. The vote to fund the resolution will be next Tuesday, April 29, at 2:00 p.m. at the McCoart building at 1 County Complex, Woodbridge, VA 22192. I know it may be inconvenient, but please try to attend and ask others to attend as well. Everyone will have 3 minutes to speak.
-- Corey
Corey A. Stewart
Chairman
Prince William Board of County Supervisors
1 County Complex Court
Prince William, VA 22192
(703) 792-4640 - Telephone/(703) 792-4637 - Fax
cstewart@pwcgov.org
www.co.prince-william.va.us
Where are the sensible voters and residents in Prince William County? Are they too busy to take grassroots action against Mr. Stewart and his radical right minions because they are trying to rescue their own neighborhoods and businesses, or are they simply getting ready to move elsewhere themselves? (A kind of dual ethnic cleansing). The angry residents who amalgamated themselves with the authoritarian reactionary right wing of the Republican Party because they feared and hated the immigrants, are finding themselves captured and used, just like Corey Stewart.
There had been a window of time in which Prince William could have dealt with these very real problems and fears in a reasonable and productive way, and, even now, if they really try, they can salvage some good and begin to repair the damage. The odds do not appear to be very good, however, especially with Stewart's leadership, great homo sapiens politicus (not) that he appears to be
He has been known to call Prince William County the "Second Alamo." Some people, even nice people, apparently thrive on conflict.