Yesterday, the Prince William County board of supervisors took an "encouraging and significant step" on its immigration policies:
The modification of the "Probable Cause" portion of the Immigration Resolution is good for Prince William County. A unanimous vote last night by the Board of Supervisors means that law enforcement here is no longer fundamentally unfair.PWC Police Officers will no longer be required to check documentation status for minor traffic stops. Therefore equal protection under the law has been restored to citizens and legal residents who fit "probable cause" indicators such as language proficiency.
Police Officers are no longer in needless danger of being accused of racial profiling. Like most other counties in the United States, we will again check legal status only after arrest. Furthermore, legal status will be questioned for ANYONE who is arrested, thus dispelling the appearance of prejudice.
According to the Examiner:
Under the proposal, unanimously approved late Tuesday, officers will check the legal status of suspected illegal immigrants after they are arrested for a local offense, but before they go before a judge for bail and bond determinations.The changes will eliminate the possibly of the sort of incidents that occurred in March in which officers checked the legal status of residents who had not committed crimes.
Meanwhile, over at the Washington Post, they lead off with an accurate headline ("Pr. William Softens Policy on Immigration Status Checks"), but then proceed to allow Corey Stewart to spin like a centrifuge, desperately trying to claim that the changes will "not amount to any 'appreciable difference in the number of people arrested.'" Suuuuure, we believe you Corey.
So where does all this leave us? According to AntiBVBL, a number of questions remain:
1) Will this change be enough to help Prince William County avert economic consequences of the Immigration Resolution that have already begun to set in?2) Will immigrant communities, both documented and undocumented, and the net economic benefit they bring with them return to our county?
3) Will the reputation of Prince William County be restored, allowing us to successfully compete with other counties in the DC Metro area for new businesses and new investment?
Good questions, and for now there are no real answers. Still, yesterday appears to have been a major victory for forces of moderation, reason and common sense over...well, other forces. That's an "encouraging and significant step," no matter how Corey Stewart tries to spin it.
Here's the rub, even though this is a good move; trust has been violated and once violated it is very hard to re-earn trust.
If you were hispanic looking (legal, illegal, asian, white with a dark tan), would you want to rush back to the county that just did the original resolution even though they also just fix some of the worst parts?
I think I'd wait a little first if I were in those shoes.
The real question for me is how long will the voter's memories be and will they toss Stewart and Stirrup out on their butts next election cycle?
As for those questions:
1. I believe immigration reform has been given too much credit towards the woes in the county. Granted cheapen labor supply made possible by complacent immigration policy was a vehicle for hypergrowth and mismanagement, but the harmful tentacles of flimsy credit and a housing bubble was already in place throughout the county.
No other county in NOVA can claim it had such a high rate of growth for its size, take place more recently than PWC. (Loudoun's development began earlier and comprised more of a balance b/n comm'l, corp and residential, while Stafford's high growth rate is smaller overall in size.) Hence no other county can claim they now are experiencing the host of problems created by the mismanagement & hyper-growth as PWC can. Just because the affects seemed to arise as the resolution came about, does not mean Stewart was the sole instigator, or the one to receive credit.
Watch similar problems in other areas of the nation, will soon create similar exodus of immigrant laborers to new places or even back to their homeland, because of weather events in the west and midwest. The affects of a late winter and a cool wet start of spring, has severely delayed crop planting or ruined it entirely; and a projected cooler summer due to the Pacifici Decadal Oscillation and/or La Nina, threatens to shorten the growing season. Both are future signs of decreasing labor requirements and combined with this prolonged credit and housing problems, it seems to me this nation right now isn't a great for place for laborers as it was during the last 10 years. For all we know some hardcore Repub county supervisor out in NV or CA or IA will press immigration reform and try to take credit or get blamed for the exodus of migrants from their community. Obviously, other forces are involved which are repeatedly ignored, enabling two parties to play political football on the matter.
2. Anti-BLVB should hope only documented workers return. And its a shame that they should even question whether or not the undocumented and their money will have an affect here. National or state immigration reform has benefits across the board, not just to so-called nativists, but to the migrant laborer as well. And an open border free flow of migrant laborers w/o documents, has no place in our country, let alone PWC, so the question of undocument laborers' return is a nonstarter.
3. When the economic tide turns, PWC will be one of the biggest regional benefactors due to its obvious geographic location and available space. PWC is squarely in the cross-hairs of regional growth, whether it is private or federal development. Money doesn't have an immigration litmus test, and all types of workers will stand to reap the benefits if they have legal documents, so why wouldn't they return and why wouldn't the county's "reputation" be restored?
But who's to say that is has lost its reputation? Its impossible to measure any damage when the overwhelming affect of credit and housing has a more overwhelming affect both today and into the future.
The available land is no longer a good predictor of growth. The conversion of farm land into housing which PWC subsidized will become more difficult. The location near jobs will become the better predictor. PWC has not attracted the workforce that attracts well paying jobs. The economic tide will reach PWC last. The cross hairs are much close to the District, Tysons and Dulles.
From today.
http://www.raisingkaine.com/sh...
PWC has not attracted the workforce that attracts well paying jobs.
I would beg to differ. Much of the population of Western Prince William County (Haymarket, Gainesville, Bristow, etc.) are the same white-collar workers you see in Centreville, Chantilly, Vienna, and Oakton. What company is going to pony up the bucks for the limited available real estate in Tysons or closer in to DC for their corporate campus when cheaper, wide-open space is available in Prince William (Innovation Park, for instance, near the GMU PW campus and the Micron plant)? Do you really believe all those cars commuting in from the west on 66 each day are filled with the people who clean the offices and plant the shrubs and not a "workforce that attracts well-paying jobs"? Median income in western Prince William (incidentally, the part of the county with the most open space) is equivalent to Fairfax County. Furthermore, housing and cost of living expenses will continue to price many out of the market in Fairfax, Falls Church, Arlington, and Alexandria.
The "sprawl" model of development is predicated on the idea that PWC will continue to be a bedroom community for labor centers elsewhere (Tysons, Reston, DC). When Tysons first started to build it, it was considered "sprawl." What's to stop similar commercial development in PWC (besides our idiotic Board of Supervisors)?
GMU Prof Fueller in 2005 and his assessement of PWC didn't even share those viewpoints either. In the coming years, because of the 2005 BRAC development in the east-end and new comm'l development in Wellington/Gainesville in the west-end, the freight train of growth, I'm afraid, isn't going to stop. Do people even know about Jack Nichlaus's 27-hole premier golf course with a 400,000 sq.ft. convention facility in Dumfries? Even Save the Bay doesn't share Jim W's belief and is proposing 50% cuts in growth for PWC thru 2030 for the stability of the bay. Gainesville is getting a Whole Foods, PF Changs and Ruth Chris Steakhouse among other retail w/i the next 3-9 months. Town Centers in Gainesville and a smaller center for Haymarket are planned. Before we know it, IAD will be connected to i-66/Manassas with a 4-6 lane parkway. Low wage workers? No growth? Please. Everyone is tired of commuting and with $4-5 gas, the internet, in cheaper operating costs outside the beltway, corporations will continue their slow and steady pace to reside from Dulles to Chantilly to Gainesville.
If the regional economy struggles continue for a prolonged time, then I would agree, these franchises and new developments will not survive and become vacant. But if the nat'l economy grows by 0.5-3%, the regional economy will pop for it is near recession proof because of the fed and corp HQ's, and places like PWC will needs immigration reform to ensure cheapen illegal labor doesn't exist and lead to more runaway growth and mismanagement. The extreme views on both ends of immigration issue all that it entails, do not exist in my opinion except for a few unique pockets and incidents. Latinos still love Whitey and vice versa. I'm glad the resolution was reformed last night and I'm glad it was unanimous, while Principi's resolution to end the reform was defeated.
PWC will be fine, it will grow, and ethnic groups of all types will continue to legally make their way into the county.
As reported in today's edition of the Washington Times, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted unanimously last night to strengthen and expand its crackdown on illegal immigration. See the story here: http://www.washingtontimes.com... Prior to this change, our police officers could check the immigration status of only those people for whom the officer had probable cause to believe were illegal immigrants. Now, police MUST check the immigration status of ALL people who are arrested (including those arrested for less serious crimes and released on summons). Also, the Board retained the officers' discretion to check immigration status of those detained for any purpose, even minor infractions. As a result of these actions, our police will be checking the immigration status of more people committing crimes in the County. I know that there was some confusion by other news sources concerning the effects of the Board's action last evening, and I have been contacting those sources today asking them to correct their stories.
Also, I want to thank those of you who sent emails or attended the Board meeting yesterday. There is no question that your input helped save our illegal immigration policy from being repealed.
-- 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