In Chief Deane’s immigration resolution status report, after six months of madness in the county, the infamous and costly “crackdown on illegal immigration” has netted 626 arrests and summons of undocumented immigrants, 1.6% of all summons and arrests in the county. This 1.6% comes with the price of 11.3 million dollars. And out of 626, only 341 arrests were made and a handful proved to be legal residents mistakenly detained. See Washington Post Article.

The rabid supporters of the “crackdown” will no doubt say that that price tag is worth it to arrest 341 “illegals.” We can argue about the value of that ad nauseum, but there is a very serious logistical problem that is the real story in the report. It’s not reported in Kristen’s article and I’m sure Corey would like to gloss over this, but Marty pounced on it during session.

Corporal Pete Meletis reports that he has no idea what happens to those detainees who are released to ICE. There is no tracking done. Even ICE doesn’t know. The detainees are sent to various detentions centers and no one knows what happens to them. In fact, Pete Meletis said that they have discovered that in examining the results of the 287(g) Program between July 2007 – August 2008, out of 907 detainers released to ICE, 48 were not only back in the county but rearrested. 48 out of 907 were rearrested in the county! Is ICE just turning around and releasing everyone? It sure looks that way to me.

Here is the reality. There is a terrible cycle to detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants and we only have control over one half of that cycle. No matter how much money we spend, how well crafted it is, if we are blind to what is happening to the other half of the cycle, it’s a pointless exercise. We are baking one half of a pie totally blind to how the other half of the pie is being baked. Unless there is divine intervention, we’re going to end up with a really bad pie.

Until the other half of the cycle is fixed and transparent, we are just wasting money, time and resources. We are pouring our money into a bottomless pit. We must face reality, ICE and federal immigration laws have to get fixed, otherwise it is wasteful and counter productive to do anything at the local level.

“Cracking down” at the local level achieved NOTHING to resolve the immigration crisis. It only achieved one thing: create a social climate in which residents are divided and Hispanics and other minorities feel unwelcome. All for the bargain price of 11.3 million dollars that tax payers have to pay in exchange for a weakened economy, an overburdened police force, and a reputation for intolerance.

We have prioritized this useless crackdown over our seniors and children. This is just bad government and it must stop. We just can’t continue down this road.

Unfortunately, the county’s strategic planning task force will be full of politically motivated appointments by John Stirrup and Corey Stewart that includes Robert “foreign invasion” Duecaster and other faces from the county anti-immigrant lobby. There is no end in sight to this policy misguidance. Citizens must step up and regain control of our government, now infiltrated by the nativist hate group.

There is so much more in the report that we must analyze. We’ll continue to analyze and post another thread shortly.

129 Thoughts to “POLICY FAILING, CONFIDENCE FALLING: analysis of yesterday’s Immigration Resolution Report”

  1. Mando

    “The rabid supporters of the “crackdown” will no doubt say that that price tag is worth it to arrest 341 “illegals.”

    The “rabid supporters” are called residents.

    http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/most_satisfied_with_countys_immigration_policy/20971/

  2. NotGregLetiecq

    This is the problem, Mando. Too few people know what a huge waste of money this has been. Too few people understand the nuts and bolts of the policy.

    Too many have been fooled by the Anti-immigrant Lobby’s lies and propaganda.

    Too many think like you.

    But as the real story gets out, and it is, the ignorance will give way to outrage at what an inept and misguided government we’ve had for over a year.

  3. Mando

    “This is the problem, Mando. Too few people know what a huge waste of money this has been. Too few people understand the nuts and bolts of the policy.

    Too many have been fooled by the Anti-immigrant Lobby’s lies and propaganda.

    Too many think like you.”

    So say the 10 or so propaganda pushers on this site? Residents are satisfied. ‘Nuff said.

  4. NotGregLetiecq

    Mando, you have the same thing to say about everything, and you never do any critical thinking. You are willing self-deceived, while most of the public is just plain uninformed. This report is the first one we’ve had that gives us a look at how this tragic policy fiasco has played out. Until now, there wasn’t anything truly definitive.

    AFTER this report, it’s simply a matter of who is in the know and who isn’t.

    And then there will be people like you, who hide from the know.

  5. hello

    Did anyone here notice the part of the post article where they list the survey results, only 7% oppose the policy. That’s a pretty small number. Here are the rest of the results:

    60% are satisfied with how the police are carrying out the immigration policy.
    14% are dissatisfied.
    7% opposed.
    17% had no opinion.

    This just goes to show how few people in PWC are opposed to the policy, 7%, and only 14% are dissatisfied. If your against it then this finally proves that your in the minority.

  6. Robb Pearson

    The numbers, if anything, demonstrate (1) the lack of wisdom (among other things) in investing outrageously excessive percentages of energy for only 2% results, and (2) the absolute and utter foolishness of the fear-based political posturing which drove that investment.

    The numbers also can be seen as demonstrating what a far, far lesser problem “illegal immigration” is in PWC than certain fear preachers had pronounced it to be.

  7. Mando

    “Mando, you have the same thing to say about everything, and you never do any critical thinking. You are willing self-deceived, while most of the public is just plain uninformed.”

    And you’re an egotistical assuming ass.

  8. NotGregLetiecq

    Mando, why don’t you read the report? Then you could make yourself look like an egotistical and assuming ass with some knowledge of what you’re talking about (and then accuse others of being the same of course).

    Where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to accuse others of assuming.

  9. NotGregLetiecq

    Hello,

    The fact that 60 percent of the public believe our brave men and women are being carrying out their duty properly with regard to the Immigration Resolution is NOT a good sign.

    Remember, our Police Force is one of the finest in the nation, and their numbers are consistently in the 90’s when it comes to general approval ratings. Until this year, those high marks had been across the board REGARDLESS of ethnicity, which is a rare achievement. Well, that’s gone now. African Americans and Hispanics have lost a lot of faith.

    It wasn’t the Police, in my estimation, but the behavior of the Help Save Manassas activists that directed the police policy, who gave citizens the impression racism had infected police policy. This is really tragic and unfair for Chief Deane and our fine officers to have to deal with this.

  10. Bring it On

    When was this survey conducted?

    I’m sure that once the 77% who either are satisfied/no opinion or are learn about the horrible results they will join the 21% who are dissatisfied/opposed. It’s basically just a matter of time until the public is educated. And if it’s timed correctly it will hit right about the time of the next election. 🙂

  11. Alanna

    The County survey was cut for next year though right?

  12. NotGregLetiecq

    If so, Alanna, we should raise the money to make sure it is conducted.

    Bring it On, you are so right. By the time the Supervisors are up for reelection, everyone will know what a huge waste of money this failed policy was.

    The ones who want to be REelected need to start leveling with the people they represent. It was a tragic mistake made under intense pressure. They got it wrong, but a lot of politicians do, in particular when the people are in a hysterical bloodlust.

  13. Moon-howler

    60% are satisfied with how the police are carrying out the immigration policy.

    That question really has nothing to do with approval of the immigration policy. It asks about how the police are doing THEIR job. Remember that the resolution changed in the middle of the survey. I would have given them kudos also, and I don’t approve of the resolution.

    I wonder how the tax payers, when faced with huge reduction in services or a 50% increase in real estate taxes will feel when they realize that getting rid of each of those 700 or so ‘illegals’ cost the county in excess of $16,000 a piece? I wonder how they will feel when they realize that ICE is really not their great savior? I wonder how they will feel when they realize that at a certain point, the outcome is out of the hands of the county and out of the hands of ICE? How about knowing that 5% of those deported came back and were re-arrested right here in PWC?

    We need to keep our money right here in PWC where we have control over it. I vote for pouring a great deal more money into local law enforcement and into neighborhood services.

  14. Elena

    WOW, 11 million dollars and the police have arrested several hundred people that clearly are not being pemanently detained by ICE or deported?

    Great points MH.

  15. Censored bybvbl

    Where’s Greg’s coverage of this latest info on the impact of the resolution?

  16. Elena

    Good question Censored! Maybe he is getting his barb wire and machine guns ready 😉

  17. Robb Pearson

    11 million dollars (I’ll take your word on the figure) for 341 arrests, but only 89 charged with anything.

    That’s about $123,595 per charge.

    Compare it this way: one charge is equal to (or just a slight bit less) than Chief Deane’s full annual salary. One charge alone.

    So that’s 89 Chief Deane’s . . . for 2% results.

  18. Elena

    What we see demonstrated in this report, is that the research conducted, by many on partisan organizations is clearly on target. The hypothesis has been, if you ONLY spend money on enforement and NOT create immigration reform which included a required path to legalization, you will see and astronomical net loss to the economy. PWC is the experiment come to life and it FAILED!

  19. NotGregLetiecq

    Make that 89 and 2/3 Chef Deane’s, Robb.

    You have to factor in the $80,000 (my estimate) Help Save Manassas cost tax payers in order to do their political witch hunting, mostly aimed at Chief Deane.

    Cheif Deane reported that over 1000 hours have been spent by county staff responding to endless Freedom of Information Act requests made by the same Help Save Manassas cronies who helped inflict this law on our county in the first place.

  20. Robb Pearson

    Elena, you stated . . .

    if you ONLY spend money on enforement and NOT create immigration reform which included a required path to legalization, you will see and astronomical net loss to the economy.

    Absolutely correct. When considering the ROI (return on investment) of the $11 million spent on this enforcement against “illegal immigration”, the conclusion is obvious to anyone with basic math skills: a horrendously dreadful and wasteful investment; a very, very horrible return.

    And anyone who thinks a 2% return on an $11 million investment is worth the investment should see a therapist.

  21. NotGregLetiecq

    Yes, Elena. But they were told it would fail before hand. FAIR had already found lab rats in other places like Riverside, NJ. A policy like this had already failed. A policy like this had already been rescinded less than a year later to try to patch together a ruined economy. Knowledgeable experts warned them.

    But we had to find out for themselves I guess.

  22. Robb Pearson

    NotGregLetiecq, you stated:

    You have to factor in the $80,000 (my estimate) Help Save Manassas cost tax payers in order to do their political witch hunting, mostly aimed at Chief Deane.

    Good point. It also goes to show how fear-based activism can have such an adverse effect on a local economy. Imagine the other more productive uses $11 million could have had in PWC.

  23. NotGregLetiecq

    You’re right Robb. The Senior Day Care Center was one of the casualties that was most painful to lose. We are also seeing cutbacks in our school budgets (less students means less money from the State) and we are firing teachers.

    The Gospel Greg Clones, including John Stirrup, have been instructed to argue that many of the students who left needed ESOL and are therefore undesirable children. But lest we forget, Corey Stewart’s own children were enrolled in ESOL for a time.

    Not all children who’s parents speak other languages than English are “illegal” children.

  24. Robb Pearson

    From the WP article:

    “It demonstrates the exodus of illegal immigrant criminals leaving the county,” Stewart said of the small percentage of undocumented immigrants arrested under the policy.

    So in other words fewer “illegal immigrants” were arrested than expected because so many have been leaving PWC in some kind of “exodus”?

    How in the world can Stewart quantify such an assertion when referring to arrest statistics? His politicking, and his obvious need to justify his stiff-necked position on the “immigration issue”, is astounding. I’m rather embarassed for the man.

  25. Alanna

    One other quick observation Mando, Hello the survey was conducted during the time-period that the resolution was being changed. So, conceivably, some of those who approved could be approving the newer version verses the original. It’s somewhat convoluted again. I would like to be able to point to one thing as a definitive answer but we are not getting that result.

  26. Alanna

    I believe, the 11.3 million is the 5 year figure not what we have expended thus far.

  27. Robb Pearson

    So taking $11.3 million over five years, and assuming that 4% of all annual arrests/people charged are “illegal immigrants” (based on 2% rate per six months), that’s still only 20% of all arrests/charges in PWC over five years for that $11.3 million allocated for “immigration enforcement”.

    That’s still 9 Chief Deane’s per year for the program ($2.2 million per year, $12,300 per charged person, 180 people charged annually).

  28. Robb Pearson,

    I’m not a math guy, but wouldn’t it be safer to assume the 2 percent rate would remain steady, or even decline over the 5 years as people who might appear to be undocumented (Hispanics) leave the county?

    From what I understand, many families held on until the school year ended and then picked up and moved in order to protect their grandmothers from being deported….

  29. Robb Pearson

    In other words, $11.3 million over five years is $2.26 million per year to charge 180 people each year under the PWC immigration enforcement policy.

    $6,200 per day.

    Chief Deane’s total annual salary every three weeks.

    All for the sake of 4% of all arrests/charges in PWC per year.

  30. –Residents are satisfied. ‘Nuff said.–

    Yeah. That’s why the numbers have declined since Stewart took over, right?

    Riiiiiiiiight.

  31. Chris

    FortKnocks,
    I hope you aren’t saying that we only have undocumented Hispanics?

  32. Robb Pearson

    ForKnocks, you stated:

    [W]ouldn’t it be safer to assume the 2 percent rate would remain steady, or even decline over the 5 years as people who might appear to be undocumented (Hispanics) leave the county?

    Whether the 2% every six months (4% per year) will remain the same or decline is so far an unknown variable. But assuming the rate declines for whatever reason, that only serves to further prove the point that $11.3 million is a horrendously excessive amount for a policy whose return/success rate has been proven to be incredibly incongruous with the overly abundant political energies and prejudicial assumptions that fed it.

  33. Another nightmare and destroyed life averted by the grace of god and the embodiment of redemption, a jury.

    Is it that, without any definable stimulus, these nightmares are being committed more frequently?

    Or is it that, due to the ubiquity of videocameras nowadays, we can finally see what has been going on all this time?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ93e7CJs9s

  34. But Robb, if a guy hit’s .200 for the first half of the season (2 hits every 10 at bats). And then he hits .200 for the second half of the season (2 hits every 10 at bats), he’s not hitting .400, he’s still hitting .200 because the ration of hits to outs is the same.

    Or did I flunk out of algebra 10 years ago for a reason?

  35. Robb Pearson

    FortKnocks, my bad. You’re correct, the rate remains at 2% whether for six months or at annual projection.

    Which has the effect of making my point doubly more impacting.

  36. You Wish

    I’m confused – you all say that we (as in PWC) are a disgrace to the nation and that people as far away as Utah and England are saying how racist we are, yet the very people that LIVE in this county aren’t educated enough about the policy? Keep talking out of both sides of your mouths.

    Or are you just saying that PWC residents are ignorant and you all are the only ones that are smart enough to understand what is going on? Doubt it. Keep on calling government leaders racists and continue to watch this blog go down the toilet.

  37. Princess Billy-Bob

    I know of no teachers who have been fired because of fewer students. All schools are still registering new kids daily.

  38. A good interview with the head of Minnesota’s ACLU chapter explaining what happened at the RNC and how the Patriot Act was actually born. Thank you slick willy.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrctYpUlFLk

  39. I posted this on the WaPo sight after someone delighted in our self-inflicted catastrophe and called us yokels while at it (probably tongue in cheek, but still) …

    Don’t call us yokels, but yeah, you basically got it right. We don’t have a catch and release program, but the Fed’s do. So we spent 11 million dollars to turn over some of the catches to the Feds, but come to find out that they end up releasing them after a hearing in some other part of THIS country. Then they release them and they come back to PWC.

    We’ve had 48 people end up in jail in PWC all over again after being turned over to ice just a few months prior.

    THOSE ARE JUST THE ONES DUMB ENOUGH TO GET CAUGHT DRIVING WITHOUT A LICENSE AGAIN.

    Who knows how many others there are.

    We wasted $11 million — that’s ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS — to ruin our economy, to make us less safe by pulling police away from their actual job to do immigration paper work, and to give us a reputation that causes you to call us yokels.

    Thanks Corey Stewart.

  40. Soon after I posted that, the Gospel Greg clones got an email telling them to go on there an post something juvenile, false, or racist (some responded with all of the above). Why do people listen to Gospel Greg after all the times he’s disgraced himself?

  41. Incidentally, Greg claims his blog is the best and he trashes specific people like Nohe and Principi all the time. His blog supposedly hasn’t gone down the hill, so where’s the logic YW?

  42. Chris, please read more carefully. I said that those who APPEAR to be undocumented (Hispanics) are leaving the county. I would too if I had to walk down the street and have everyone, including police and even well-meaning people, wonder about my status due to the color of my skin.

    Know why I say that? Because I’m white. I’m well meaning. I don’t follow this issue much. But the general climate here has played a trick on my brain. Every time I see a Hispanic person in PWC, I wonder about their status.

    And it’s not because I want anything bad to happen to them. It’s because I don’t. But still, I feel guilty when I walk past someone and it crosses my mind. I wonder if they can tell that was what I was thinking.

    God. I never used to think twice about skin color when I lived in DC.

  43. Yeah, that’s because DC is used to something called diversity, Fort. You’d think some of that would spill over to the DC METRO area, but I guess not.

    Hey, let’s stick Stirrup and Stewart in SE for awhile and see how they fare.

  44. Anti-Defamation League Article
    (FYI, they don’t report you unless you’re advocating racism.)

    The ADL has reported Help Save Manassas targets immigrants, uses speech from hate groups, and has local elected officials in its membership.

    NOTE: HSM is officially a part of FAIR which has been identified as a hate group. Black Velvet Bruce Li (described below) is a collection of hate speech, violent intent, and discrimination; the blog owner and HSM President are the same person.
    _________________________
    Immigrants Targeted: Extremist Rhetoric Moves into the Mainstream Capital Area Alliance Against Illegal Immigration

    In April 2008, ten groups (in addition to an advisory group, the American Council for Immigration Reform) founded the Capital Area Alliance Against Illegal Immigration (the Alliance), a coalition whose mission is to “promote a united strategy of education, outreach and advocacy to end political and legislative support for illegal immigration in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.” To reach this end, the Alliance has stated its opposition to “sanctuary policies” and seeks to eliminate government-provided social services for undocumented immigrants in the Capital region. In the Alliance, anti-immigrant groups, widely viewed as mainstream, are operating in partnership with virulently anti-Hispanic border vigilante groups that monitor undocumented immigrants.

    Ostensibly mainstream groups often conceal such connections; one of the reasons that the founding of the Alliance is significant is because it openly reveals these ties. Two anti-immigrant activists, Chris Simcox, leader of the border vigilante Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (and co-founder of the 2005 Minuteman Project) and Greg Letiecq of Save the Old Dominion, comprise the leadership of six of these ten groups. Glenn Spencer, who has promoted anti-Mexican conspiracy theories, is the leader of one of the other Alliance groups, the Arizona-based American Border Patrol. The Alliance formally announced its founding at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 10, 2008, and it has gained coverage in the mainstream media. Rather than discuss immigration policy, the Alliance has promoted classic anti-immigrant themes that demonize individuals. The press release announcing the Alliance’s formation states:

    Sanctuary policies undermine public safety, school systems, and hospitals, and erode the overall quality of life for Capital area residents. The growing social, criminal and financial burden of illegal immigration has reached unsustainable proportions. Local businesses, Americans seeking jobs and regional communities suffer as a result of this lawlessness.

    The Capital Area Alliance is comprised of the following coalition partners:
    American Council for Immigration Reform (Virginia) – A non-profit anti-immigrant group, it acts in an advisory capacity to the Alliance. The Council works with several anti-immigrant activists and groups, including other Alliance partners. It has run ads in the mainstream media, brought activists to Washington, D.C. to lobby, and made contacts with elected officials. The group links its Website to similar anti-immigrant groups, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA, and the Council’s blog includes a link to VDare, a racist Website, under the “favorites” section.

    American Border Patrol, also known as American Patrol (Arizona) – An anti-immigrant group that uses high-tech equipment to monitor the flow of illegal immigrants across the Arizona border. For more than a decade, group leader Glenn Spencer, who mixes anti-Mexican bigotry with anti-government rhetoric, has warned of a plan by Mexicans to “invade” and “conquer” the Southwestern United States. Spencer moved his group from California to Sierra Vista, Arizona, in August 2002, in order to be, in his words, “on the front lines.” He has appeared at events sponsored by white supremacists and racists, and racist and anti-government extremist groups across the country have embraced his rhetoric.

    Defend DC (Washington, D.C.) – Its leader, William Buchanan, serves as the Alliance’s Washington, D.C. spokesman. The group’s founding goal was to prevent the establishment of a day labor center in a specific area of Washington, D.C. To that end, the group held a joint demonstration with Help Save Maryland, another Alliance partner, at a Home Depot in Washington, D.C. in December 2007. The group’s information packet reveals its ideology: “Illegal alien workers are incompatible with a decent neighborhood. Public urination, public drinking, sexual harassment, and property intrusions are only the beginning…The fabric of the community slowly unravels.”

    Judicial Watch (Washington, D.C.) – A conservative non-profit group that seeks to act as a government watchdog. It files lawsuits and engages in various types of campaigns to “root out government corruption.” The Judicial Watch Website was the first to feature the Alliance’s press release. Judicial Watch has, for years, been waging its own campaign against the “illegal alien invasion,” claiming that undocumented immigration is an economic and security threat. The group’s staff officially participated in the Minuteman Project, a month-long border vigilante exercise along the United States-Mexico border in Arizona in April 2005.

    Maryland Minuteman CDC (Maryland) –A chapter of the border vigilante Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a national group led by Chris Simcox and headquartered in Arizona. The two-year-old chapter mainly exists as a Web entity; its page is currently updated with news stories rather than actual chapter activity. In 2007, the chapter was more active. It held meetings, co-sponsored an anti-immigrant rally, and encouraged members to attend an anti-immigrant rally in Washington, D.C., staged by the Dustin Inman Society, a Georgia-based anti-immigrant group.

    Virginia Minuteman CDC (Virginia) – A chapter of the border vigilante Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a national group led by Chris Simcox and headquartered in Arizona. Chapter leader George Taplin has appeared in a mainstream documentary about immigration, spoken at several community events pertaining to immigration, fought to close a day labor center in Virginia to reduce the numbers of undocumented workers in the area, and has been quoted in mainstream media outlets. In May 2007, the chapter sponsored the founding meeting of Help Save Virginia Beach, a group created to encourage the training of local police to enforce federal immigration law.

    Help Save Maryland (Maryland) – In its mission and activities, the group supports anti-immigrant policies, including empowering local law enforcement to initiate deportation proceedings, closing day labor centers, and removing benefits to undocumented immigrants. The group has chapters in 10 counties. Chuck Floyd is the Alliance’s Maryland spokesperson, and group member Pree Glenn-Graves, who runs the Prince Georges County chapter, was a vocal participant at the Alliance’s press conference at the National Press Club. She stated, “We’re going to start getting overrun in Prince George’s County. I can see it happening…I see it happening. Even our Kmart [sic] has been converted to Spanish. Everything is in Spanish and English.” In April 2008, Joe Guzzardi, the editor of VDare, a racist Website, quoted group leader Brad Botwin in an article he wrote and posted to VDare. Guzzardi’s article, which supported anti-immigrant activity, is featured on the Help Save Maryland blog.

    Save the Old Dominion (Virginia) – This group is itself a coalition comprised of seven anti-immigrant groups: Help Save Loudoun, Vienna Citizens Coalition/Group, Help Save Hampton Roads, Centreville Citizens Coalition, Help Protect Culpeper, Save Stafford, and Help Save Manassas.

    Three of these groups–Help Save Loudoun, Vienna Citizens Coalition/Group and Help Save Manassas–are positioning themselves as independent members of the Alliance. Greg Letiecq, an anti-immigrant leader and head of the Virginia-based Help Save Manassas, is the executive director of Save the Old Dominion and also serves as the Alliance’s Virginia spokesman.

    Help Save Loudoun (Virginia) – Member of Save the Old Dominion; also a member of Help Save Virginia, an anti-immigrant coalition containing four subgroups (Help Save Herndon, Help Save Loudoun, Help Save Fairfax, Help Save Hampton Roads). Help Save Loudoun contains both a grassroots component (“formed to address and troubleshoot community improvement issues”), and a political action committee. The latter was “formed to promote the election of public officials who are dedicated to implementing immigration law enforcement measures at the local and state levels; and reversing the trend of illegal migration into Northern Virginia.”

    Vienna Citizens Coalition, which also appears to be the Vienna Citizens Group (Virginia) — Member of Save the Old Dominion; it describes itself as a “multicultural group, of varying ages and stages in life” and the Website also states, “We can turn the tide on crime, day laborers, vagrancy, and zoning problems in Vienna. It’s up to us to take this stand and take back our town.” The group claims to meet once a month.

    Help Save Manassas (Virginia) – Member of Save the Old Dominion. Greg Letiecq, the Virginia spokesperson for the Alliance, runs Help Save Manassas and Save the Old Dominion. Letiecq has attracted hundreds of people to Help Save Manassas through his personal blog, “Black Velvet Bruce Li,” reportedly one of the most highly trafficked blogs in the state. Having just commemorated its one-year anniversary in April 2008, Help Save Manassas, which claims to have 2,000 members, including elected officials, has proven to be one of the most influential and active entities in the anti-immigrant movement in the Capital region. Its legislative committee worked with a member of the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors and the legal arm of FAIR to draft a resolution that “seeks to deny services to illegal immigrants and sharply increase immigration enforcement by police.” The resolution was unanimously passed in July 2007. A group newsletter includes language representative of Letiecq’s ideology:

    “Our county has been under assault from the influx of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who have taken advantage of our lax enforcement of the law at the federal, state and local levels. These border crashers have contributed to rising crime rates, increasing burdens on our schools, hospitals and public services, and the very destruction of our American culture.”

  45. Elena

    Alanna,
    Let me check the number from the budget report I have.

  46. Chris

    FortK,
    Thanks, for the correction.

    I know of legal families that have left the county too. I have one friend that told me she doesn’t feel like this is the PWC she’s spent half of her life in.

    I lived in a very effected area, and I can honestly say I don’t wonder about everyones status us see. I do see some suspicious characters that I wonder about though. I do wonder what goes through minds when they pass whites on streets these days.

  47. Well, I don’t know how to put my finger on it. Obviously the elected government for DC is a lot more representative of the diversity that actually exists in both communities. In PWC there are more African Americans than we realize. But the tend to be discounted for some reason. Anyway, of course diversity is not what protects against what has happened here. It would be more like a diverse electorate voting in a diverse group of politicians. They don’t have to be minorities but they should be diverse enough to protect against scapegoating minorities as a political ploy, which is ultimately what this seems like to me.

  48. NotGregLetiecq

    You Wish,

    It’s not hard to explain how large numbers of people are ill-informed about the immigration issue in PWC, and yet we do not deserve to be labeled as a county full of racists. Being ignorant is not a crime. And it’s a little different from being racist.

    The legislation has racist roots, written in concert with a certified Hate Group (that does not deny its anti-immigrant objectives). But that doesn’t mean that the people who are paying 11 million dollars for that policy, many of us unwillingly, are racist. And, it doesn’t mean that the people who live in PWC, but are not aware of the racist roots of the policy are necessarily racist.

    Likewise, if some of us are unaware of the economic impacts of the policy, it doesn’t make us racists.

    There is a link between ignorance and racism, as many in this region have shown in recent times, but it is not a necessary guarantee that where there is smoke there’s fire.

    In any case, you can’t blame the whole county for what a few Supervisors and a local band of anti-immigrant lobbyists did.

  49. Posted this on WaPo after a Gospel Greg clone posted another inane argument:

    Yes, the numbers are up since May, but I have bad news for all the closet and not-so-closet racists who got emails from Greg Letiecq that they should post here:

    Higher numbers of immigration checks under the new policy does not mean higher numbers of Hispanics checked.

    The horror!

    Yes, the new policy does not involve racial profiling! It checks everyone who is arrested, but it does not take race into account when deciding who to arrest, or who to question about status.

    So, while more people are being checked, the law is being applied equally to everyone. So guess, what, some Canadians who have expired drivers licenses will also end up getting caught up in the system. Some Germans, and some Italians.

    Yep, even the Irish. All the groups that the anti-immigrant nut jobs attacked in previous generations but now say they are okay and only wish to target Hispanics.

    So, yes, numbers slightly up is fine with me, as long as we all have equal protection under the law.

    (And tripled since May is misleading since May was the only month when we didn’t have a firm policy in place. April 29th was the day the Board voted to make the policy Constitutional and provide equal protection. It took the police force a while to get up to speed on the new policy).

  50. The post above is flippant and overstated now that I look at it, but still basically true. It was never part of the policy to take race into account, but it was, I think, unavoidable given today’s social climate. Language proficiency was an allowable litmus test. So it could be just as Corey Stewart apparent gaffe yesterday revealed: we only check the Spanish speakers. This is really no different that racial profiling in my view.

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