The Washington Post has a fairly extensive article in the paper today on the journey PWC took regarding our very contentious immigration fight in 2007.
I look back at the time with many different emotions. We had a unique opportunity when Eric Byler, a Gainesville resident and film maker, was able to take us along, front row seat, on our immigration battle. There was little room for real discussion and debate. Instead, we had outside influences like FAIR pushing their agenda with the help of eager politicians like Corey to mis-use this community issue. The videos were like a diary, no filters- -they were real time events we could all observe.
Are there lessons for the Federal Government to learn from the struggles of Prince William County? Yes, don’t do what we did. In the end, there was no real solution to the problems in the community regarding the influx of new immigrants, whether their status was legal or illegal, the only end result was that during the height of the debate, many left in fear, and others left as a result of the economic downturn.
Steve Thomas, someone whom I would now call friend (I hope that doesn’t embarrass you Steve.) said it best. Steve, like many people in the community, had serious concerns about negative changes he saw happening in his neighborhood.
Five years ago, as Prince William County police began reporting illegal immigrants to federal officials, Edilio Morales tried to lie low. The Guatemalan warehouse worker avoided hitching rides with other undocumented friends and started bicycling to church. Several times, he said, the police stopped him and asked him for identification but let him go after he took out his Bible.
About the same time, Steve Thomas was getting fed up. One house on his street was home to four immigrant families, who were running an illegal laundry and day-care center. As operations chairman of Help Save Manassas, a group that aimed to remove illegal immigrants from the area, Thomas ardently endorsed the new police mandate.
Today, Morales’s fear has abated, and so has Thomas’s frustration.
Thomas says the rental houses on his street in Manassas no longer have multiple families and neighbors have resolved their differences. “I’ve actually become pretty good friends with some of the people who were on the other side of the issue,” he said.
Morales, 44, who stopped to chat recently while browsing among guavas and chilies in a Woodbridge supermarket, no longer looks over his shoulder. “We are not afraid of the police anymore,” he said. “My family is all here, and I have a good job. I have faith that Mr. Obama will fulfill his promise so I can be legal, too.”
Maybe the commonality is that this country was facing a dark time, with hateful rhetoric on the rise, people making derogatory comments that once, only a short time ago, would never have been spoken aloud. Now, for different reason, some moral, many electoral, the discussion surrounding comprehensive immigration reform has returned.
Thomas, who also chairs the City of Manassas Republican Committee, said that as the conversation has moved on to the national arena, “I think that folks on my side of the debate are a little bit more open . . . The citizens that were involved on the other side, they’re our neighbors. They’re not bad people, they just disagree.”
Unlike Prince William County, I hope that we will have real immigration reform, PWC is still in limbo, and we need a comprehensive immigration plan as our economy slowly moves forward out of the recession. Now is the time our elected officials must act and learn from the mistakes of PWC.
http://www.manassascity.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1269
Citizenship on Display!
“All of the citizens create a riot of color on the Museum’s walls…
a metaphor of the United States as a melting pot.”
Thank Steve! Great link 🙂
Just looking at the comment section of the WaPo, I have come to the conclusion that nothing has changed at all. There is the same old mean spirited ignorance there always has been.
These folks aren’t addressing the real problems, they are just being nasty.
I can’t believe five years have passed since the ROL passed. Time sure flies.
Anyway, Greg Letiecq says that the resolution that he pushed for was a great success, even though most illegal immigrants didn’t leave. Whatever, if he says it was a great success, then it was a great success.
Some people are great optimists, regardless of what really happened. The resolution that those folks pushed for really never came to be.
On the comments page, there is a list of WaPo articles dating back to July 11, 2007. Much of what they wanted was not legal (or so they found out)
I noticed the comments in the WaPo too. It was the creepiness of BVBL and how some of the local politicians were all too eager to high-five Greg that drew me into local politics. I’d seen bigotry in action in the South and was appalled to find it in my own county in the twenty-first century. Most of the problems could have been solved with enforcement of local zoning or noise ordinances or with local businesses willing to go after loiterers. Ethnicity had nothing to do with the problems and everything to do with people’s bigotry because they couldn’t tell who was here legally or not by mere appearances.
What I did learn – which was unfortunate – was that local pols were quick to listen to the complainers – even those in California! Community disunity could be promoted for political gain. Hee hee – they’ve since learned that the complainers will move on to other things whether it’s desks at the McCourt Building, funding the Hylton Center or the Manassas ballet, or money spent on the schools. Bitches will bitch.
Nationally those who complain about immigration will complain about a host of other things. They will point out the problems and offer no solutions.
I think the rudeness was my biggest eye opener. People felt absolutely no shame in saying the rudest things to people and about people.
It took me back to another era when people with bad manners would say whatever they wanted in front of and about blacks–you know, those remarks that made you embarrassed to be a white person.
Hi MH…I agree. I was reading a different immigration article on WaPo online last night and read through the comments too…still tons of ignorance and nastiness and back of the line rhetoric.
Many of those rude remarks were seen on blogs and heard at McCoart. One such remark is as follows:
From July 2007 in the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/10/AR2007071002093_2.html?sid=ST2010122004569
I am not so sure the berater should have been removed. Remarks about an “Hispanic Flag” are totally inappropriate.
The hate and ugliness were breath-taking. And the pols were more than willing to cover themselves in it in a quest for cheap votes. Prince William, which had seemed so promising only shortly before, suddenly became an object lesson in un-American values.
One of the major difficulties with the politicians’ swarming the issue in the manner they did, was that they had to run down the County to do it. To make the case for new (mostly illegal) measures, one had to, like Letiecq, hysterically exaggerate the problem. As Censored noted above, every claimed problem (overcrowding, public urination, street violence) was already addressable under existing law. But Stewart and others had to hop on the bandwagon and, in so doing, had to run the County down on a national stage. This was a big difference from the approach of Stewart’s predecessor and in no way an improvement.
The ignorance involved with that first resolution was phenomenal. Some of the services that our leaders proposed to withhold from undocumented immigrants were very much illegal. The county quickly found out they couldn’t deny some services to immigrants.
I thought many of the elected officials showed cowardice rather than leadership.
Additionally, the rudeness and dehumanizng way that people were routinely spoken about seemed to rule the day. It’s still there. Just a brief read of the comments from Sunday’s article in the paper confirms that.
Here is one such bit of nastiness directed at Elena. The ‘author’ tried to leave comments on this blog so you can guess who this is:
“Illegal alien apologist” bwaaaahahahahaahaha. What an A-hole statement. Elena never brought her own camera crew anywhere she spoke. She doesn’t have a camera crew. Eric Byler was filming and Elena actually met him for the first time while she gave Corey the “What for.” when she addressed the BOCS.
As for HER blog site containing despicable comments about elected officials and ordinary citizens who disagreed with her? I don’t think so. Elena didn’t have her own blog site until she and I began Moonhowlings.net.
One bit of truth, yes, her rants are sometimes about conservative politicians. Boo effen Hoo. Mine always are and I’m proud of it. Not all aocnservative politicians get my wrath, only some. Its obvious who they are.
Overall, I found the article to be commendable, and kudos to y’all…just shoke my head at the line about denying services to the elderly. Wasn’t sorta kinda accurate as there was a little more detail about that. But what the heck, still a great article and glad the WaPo came to the “source” to give a fair and balanced story!
They were always going after the Blue Bird senior bus. Of course, so was the Sheriff. Oops.
When people have a heartfelt opinion, and find both parties of their government in collusion to keep them from being heard, and to frame issues falsely … maximum rudeness and anger will result.
Make no mistake, both political parties’ leaders were on a mission in 2007 to ram a “comprehensive” amnesty-flavored plan down the American people’s throats without consideration to the consequenes. It was aggressive, it was irresponsible.
At some point there has to be a solution. The status quo simply cannot sustain.
I was in elected office in Manassas during this time and here’s what I think: the mistake that was made (in Manassas) was that we let the problem fester until it was an election issue. At that point, you really don’t have the room necessary to study things and make nuanced decisions with an appropriate period of time to think things through and let staff do their work. The inaction of the Feds didn’t help much.
I was elected after the city had enacted and repealed the “definition of family ” ordinance but before we joined the 287g program. The definition of family ordinance was a bit bone-headed: the Council should have directed staff to figure out what other localities do that have the problem and then copy it. It’s what we always do…:)
As for the 287g, I supported it then and I would support it now if it were still around. Manassas was developing a pretty serious crime problem back then and it was a great tool to have. I see nothing wrong with deporting felons and we haven’t had a single complaint. The rest of the problem is addressable by coordinated zoning and ordinance enforcement….and that’s pretty vanilla stuff but it was something that Manassas knew little about back in the day….
I missed out on the definition of family years. I hadn’t retired then and didn’t have as much time on my hands. I would say a small city isn’t the place to test that one. I know people who protested it for many reasons other then immigration.
I would support 287g now. No one wants criminals on their streets.
Prince William should have poured the millions they wasted on all the “catch the illegals” plans they came up with into propping up neighborhood services and things they had control over.
“At some point there has to be a solution. The status quo simply cannot sustain.”
Not sure that’s really true. But at any rate, let’s not pretend that we need some “magic bullet” comprehensive solution to be crafted by the untrustworthy crooks in Congress. Fixing the current legal immigration system shouldn’t be beholden on other issues. Choosing to let guest workers work here legally shouldn’t be beholden on other issues. Enforcing US law and deporting illegal immigrants DEFINITELY shouldn’t be dependent on other issues, BECAUSE IT’S THE LAW.
We think its the law. What exactly does the law say and where can I find it?
Also, Moon, in 2007 we were being told that there needs to be a solution, the status quo couldn’t sustain, and if we didn’t sign the Amnesty bill (yes, I’m calling it that) then we would all turn into pumpkins at midnight and there would be rioting in the streets.
Lindsay Graham was crying, Ted Kennedy and George W Bush were telling us the issue was critical, heck even chertoff came out and told us we couldn’t be safe in our homes unless we passed the bill. The bill was defeated and the world continued to turn.
After that….You certainly didnt seem too happy with the status quo here in Manassas.
If people have a way to be here legally, don’t you think they would be?
I almost hate to say this but…here it goes…..why were the huge numbers of young men illegal immigrants here in Prince William county? yes, bingo. Many were working in the building industry…building all those homes that our supervisors rubber stamped a big OK on.
When the housing market crashed and the jobs dried up, the army of young men moved on. The families stayed.
It goes back to the developers. Why have we needed an inordinate number of new schools here? Same reason.
“After that….You certainly didnt seem too happy with the status quo here in Manassas.”
True dat.
“If people have a way to be here legally, don’t you think they would be?”
My point is that fixing the legal path is something we can and should do now. It shouldn’t be held hostage to the mythical “comprehensive” solution.
I still feel, very strongly (which is why I’ve reiterated myself 1010 times over the years) that we cannot and must not allow our ruling class to pick and choose which laws they wish to enforce. They have an obligation, sworn on bibles, to uphold our laws. When they deliberately choose not to do so (Bush, Obama) it undercuts my whole perhaps naive notion of this being a democracy/republic.
Rick, I think it is comprehensive because one thing affects another. I think what has happened over the past several decades is that bandaids have been placed over holes and things wrong with our immigration policy until it pretty much has turned into Frankenstein. That would be my guess.
We don’t need to patch up anything. We need to make it all work together. Some of the “laws” are really policies that have been “turned” by beaurocrats.
I don’t know that we want different things. It might all be semantics.
Rick when the govt has limited resources, the govt has to select which laws to enforce. It has no choice but to do so
I learned a lot about what you can do through Neighborhood Services (“How to Approach a Neighbor on a Difficult Issue”), Neighborhood Watch (two immigrants were killed in my Manassas City neighborhood during this time, one is still unsolved), Unity in the Community (the Immigration and Human Rights Cinema at GMU-PW, now in it’s third or fourth year) and many other resources.
If you go to this website, you can see what the little town of Shelbyville did when their population grew and changed dramatically during the same time period. There’s a lot to be said for listening and problem-solving together, and not throwing money at a problem or wasting resources out of fear. That city “definition of a family” was quite costly. http://www.welcomingamerica.org/
“Rick when the govt has limited resources, the govt has to select which laws to enforce. It has no choice but to do so”
And you can bet on the ruling elites of both parties to enforce any laws that benefit the wealthy. And fail to enforce any laws (securities fraud, wide-spread mortgage fraud, labor pool full of illegal immigrants) that don’t.
Yeah, Rick, I agree. They’re out to protect the 1 percent.