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The chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors is proposing an Arizona-style illegal immigration law for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.
The tough law on illegal immigration the county adopted a couple of years ago isn’t sufficient, according to a statement released by Corey Stewart for Chairman.
“We saw a 37 percent drop in violent crime in the first two years of enforcement and overall crime is at a 15-year low,” he said. “But we have anecdotally known, since day one, that the criminal aliens that fled were just going to neighboring jurisdictions.”
So Stewart has started a petition online and a Facebook page for The Virginia Rule of Law Campaign. He has promised a draft of the law soon
It would give police more power to identify and deport illegal immigrants, impose harsh penalties for illegal immigrants, and crack down on day labor and human smuggling. Jails would release illegal immigrants to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement upon completion of their sentences. Police would be allowed to make arrests without warrants if they believed those arrests could lead to deportations. And individual cities and counties would be barred from interfering.
Prince William County’s controversial law doesn’t make it a crime to be an illegal immigrant in the county, but it allows police to check immigration status of people who’ve been arrested, which Stewart credits for the drop in violent crime and fewer illegal immigrants in the county.
Those who campaigned for the law, which took effect in July 2008, argued that the county had to take care of itself if the commonwealth and country weren’t going to address illegal immigration. Stewart’s latest campaign takes the same position.
“As long as the federal government shows no interest in securing the border and no interest in internal enforcement to promote self-deportation, then states and localities will have to pick up the slack,” he said.
And he intends to use the 2011 election to pressure the General Assembly into passing his Virginia Rule of Law next session.
Corey’s Updated Website:
The Virginia Rule of Law Act
Enhance Police Powers to Capture, Detain, and help Deport Criminal Aliens
- Direct Virginia law enforcement officials to ascertain, in any lawful contact, the legal presence of an individual, when practicable.
- Direct Virginia jails to release criminal aliens to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after serving their sentence.
- Allow law enforcement officials to arrest illegals without warrant if they have reasonable suspicion that the arrest would make them removable from the United States.
Virginia Criminal Penalties for Illegal Aliens
- Make it a violation of Virginia law to fail to complete alien registration documents.
- Impose harsh penalties for terrorists and illegals caught with illegal drugs and deadly weapons.
Outlaw Sanctuary Policies
- Prohibit cities and counties from preventing law enforcement officials from inquiring about legal presence or preventing them from sharing information with ICE.
Outlaw Illegal Day Laboring and Public Roadside Solicitation
- Allow law enforcement officials to break up day laboring operations.
- Prohibit solicitation along all public roads, crippling illegal day labor sites.
Crackdown on Human Smuggling Prohibit smuggling and human trafficking, especially for sexual slavery.
The election is in 2011. Corey is attempting to ride the coattails of the Arizona anti-immigration law SB1070 (download the law) and capture some of the national attention that Arizona is getting over immigration. It was announced late this afternoon that the Administration will sue the State of Arizona over its law that is set to go into effect. July 28, 2010. I suppose Corey Stewart is jealous of the impending lawsuit that will cost an already cash-strapped Arizona millions it can’t afford to spend. Does Virginia need to get sued also?
Corey needs to stop grand-standing and stop the continual embarrassment to Prince William County. There needs to be no Virginia Rule of Law Act. There are some extremely serious violations embedded in that proposal that are Constitutional violations that even a novice can spot. No Rule of Law there. If Stewart wants to be Mr. Rule of Law he needs to obey the law and stop trying to find ways to skirt around it just to get his name in the news.
From the PWC Police Crime Report:
RAPE STATISTICS
Way to go, Corey. Last time I thought about it, rape was a violent crime.
Down load Crime Reports:
Crime Report 2008
Crime Report 2009
Corey was elected to serve PWC, not the state of Virginia. His proposed resolution is unconstitutional, as the state of Arizone will soon find out (so much for constitutional purity). And we already have laws against human trafficking. He is making a complete and total arse of himself.
The update on Stewart’s website does not cut it. I point to the third point under the first section entitled “Enhance Police Powers….” It seems to me to be a jumble of clumsily written stuff which would need a page of legal footnotes added for any cop to understand. Poorly done. Also on surface it seems to come close to what was eliminated from the first version of the Arizona law. How could any road patrol cop have the qualifications to decide that an arrest would make somebody “removable” from the United States? As the late Desi Arnaz alias Ricky Ricardo would have said: “Somebody has got some splainin’ to do!”
Also the first point under “Outlaw Illegal Day Laboring….” What does “break up day laboring operations” actually mean in terms of concrete actions? Talk about vague.
Come on, Mr. Chairman. If you are serious about this, start hiring some skilled writers and add some precision to this thing. Not even a snake oil salesman would try to peddle this product as it currently stands.
I am trying my best to get the crime reports up for you all to see. Our crime statistics simply do not support what he is saying.
As for the violent crimes, in 2008, after the housing boom crowd left town, there were 30-some percent fewer aggrevated assaults which, with a little snooping ended up being mainly domestic incidents.
The same thing happened in my hometown (and in Harrisonburg, Blacksburg, Williamsburg, etc) after the college crowd left. After the UVA boys headed for the hills and they were drinking from Vinegar Hill to Rugby Road, as the song goes, there were fewer fights etc.
However, to say, as Corey has said, that there was a “37% drop in violent crime in the first two years of enforcement and violent crime is at a 15 year low.” (implied that this is a result of illegal immigrants leaving town) simply does not represent the truth.
I simply cannot stand for Corey to once again try to gain political advantage on the backs of a community that is still healing from the last time he pulled this stunt.
Starry and Wolverine, thank you both for your comments.
It is significant that both of you all, coming from different zones of the political spectrum, see that this is the snake oil salesman talk for sure!!
How should I put it? By not increasing enforcement of anti-illegal immigration laws we will eventually put this nation out of business, but with ‘dignity’. That is not why the Constitution was drafted! This constant and obvious use of our poorly interpreted laws against us has got to stop. We are rapidly dissolving into a nonfunctional society with no core ideals or nationality which would continue to bind us together as a ‘nation’. This will become the land of the lost identity in which each individual will be playing CYA without any national pride except for the foreign land from which they came.
Hey, don’t forget to celebrate the 4th of July! (before it’s considered politically incorrect to do so)
Throwing the Constitution out the window while doing the Rule of Law dance just isn’t the way to do this.
I will not willingly live in a police state just so Corey can get elected, re-elected or whatever it is he wants do to.
SA, you and I both missed the great age of the immigrant. By the time we came along, most of those immigrants had Americanized. But I think our ancestors probably said the same thing about the wave of immigrants back then.
BTW, my Virginia mother was so insulated from major waves of immigration that she had never heard of broccoli until she met my father who lived around immigrants being from NJ, according to her. Amazing. To think that broccoli, a staple of life, was considered immigrant food.
He was on Channel 5 this morning. Here’s the link.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/virginia/prince-william-county-board-chairman-proposes-arizona-illegal-immigration-law-in-virginia-061710
The have counter comments from Nancy and channel 4 included John Steinbach.
Thanks Vulture. It looks like Corey got the City of Manassas again. The poor city just can’t stay out of it. Maybe Poor Richard will take a talk with Corey.
I can’t stand the fact that the City of Manassas gets shown and a black eye for the county’s policy. I’m sure poor Poor Richard will come along and blast the county. The City does need to understand they are going to take some blame. Afterall, the City is situated in the county of Prince William and the courthouse is located in the City. Courthouse is typically viewed as the “county seat”.
Corey Stewart was just on telephone interview again with channel 5. He doesn’t even understand our laws here in PWC. He basically said that once arrested cops could pretty much tell who was legal and who wasn’t. He made it sound like intuition rather than a series of steps that are to be taken with all people arrested.
Do I just assume if I don’t look like I could be an illegal immigrant I will be waved on through the arrest process? It sure sounded like it.
And lets us not forget the article in the WaPo 4/29/10
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2010/04/mcdonnell_concerned_about_ariz.html
Governor McDonnell is worried by some of the legalities of the Arizona Law.
Maybe he needs to call Corey and tell him just to shut up.
I echo the statements above as ‘carrying papers’ could lead to harassment and registration of gun owners.
Current law does not require carrying paperwork identifying that you ‘own’ or are ‘permitted’ to own a gun. My fear is that this legislation may be used as a backdoor to register gun owners.
Some one will have to introduce this Bill in the GA. Which Va. politician wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with Corey, especially after the Rups. ran on an anti-immigration platform in 2007 and got there hats handed to them?
RV, probably none. Why bring more shame on the state. We are already suing the feds over health care. 🙄 Now this.
I had forgotten about that ill-fated 2007 state election. What worked in PWC didn’t work state wide.
Corey is a petulant child, crying out for attention “look at me, look at me”. He FAILED here in PWC and now wants to go statewide?
As a what? He says in the WaPo this morning that he will be lobbying the rest of the year:
Doesn’t he have another job? Isn’t he the board chair? Where are his priorities?
Is this another attention seeking behavior he is displaying?
He admitted to channel 5 that he wanted to run all the ‘illegals’ out of the state, then he could not explain our physical arrest procedure to the channel 5 folks. He simply did not know the process.
I don’t always agree with City of Manassas decisions, but I haven’t seen city leaders use fear to manipulate people, or scapegoat or call people names. The city also defers to the police chief to speak about public safety or crime, probably because that’s his job. He knows what makes a community safe and what doesn’t.
For someone who demands that others to respect boundaries, the PWC BOCS chair doesn’t seem to practice what he preaches.
Is this leadership?
Diversion – using distraction/diversion to keep focus off behavior and freeing oneself to promote self-serving hidden agenda.
Lying – withholding significant amount of truth or distorting truth. Being vague when asked direct questions.
Covert Intimidation – intimidating victims by making veiled threats.
Guilt-tripping – suggesting that a conscientious person doesn’t care enough, is too selfish, etc. (Meanwhile, conscientious person can turn blue in the face trying to get manipulator to feel badly about hurtful behavior, acknowledge responsibility or admit wrongdoing, to no avail.)
Shaming – subtle sarcasm and put-downs to increase fear and self-doubt in others.
Playing the Servant Role – pretending to be working hard on someone else’s behalf while concealing one’s own ambition, desire for power and quest for a position of dominance over others.
Projecting the blame (blaming others) – finding scapegoats.
Minimization – asserting an abusive behavior isn’t really as harmful or irresponsible as someone else may be claiming (“you’re making a mountain out of a molehill).
We all manipulate to some level to get what we want – but I just graduated from a leadership program in PWC and these tactics were not taught in any of the sessions — just good honest relationship building and learning to “work well with others.”
Who wants to be on the tail of a kite that gets whipped this way and that?
– Interesting stories in both the WSJ and NYT on the immigration issue
in Fremont, Nebraska. Apparently citizens bypassed their Mayor and
council to approve, by petition/vote, a strong ordinance restricting illegal
immigration. A slender majority of elected officials saw it as a costly
legal battle the city was almost certain to lose.
– The BOCS claim the Prince William County seat to be the McCoart Building
and the offices around it. Also, over a decade ago, the courts decided
that PWC included a “hole in the donut” in the center of Manassas that
included the courthouse and detention center. (This was a result of
the city not wanting the detention vastly expanded at the present site).
Poor Richard, it was your water tower I saw, not ours. Once again…City of Manassas got dragged in.
And, I think Cindy has brought up some excellent points. I think City of Manassas has been the slow steady turtle who eventually won the race. The police chief addresses police matters and the council isn’t off hot dogging, each trying to have the best attention seeking set of behaviors.
Prince William County should look inward, toward the dough nut hole, in this case.
Cindy, thanks for asking those important questions about leadership.
Corey Stewart is not getting much press with the black velvets. There is one who is still whining about his house not being worth what he paid for it. He was there years ago whining about the same thing and wanting to fire the police chief.
He loves the big C Stewart and thinks he controls the entire board.
You guys seem to have a lot of conservatives over here but yours are a lot smarter and better educated than theirs.
Maybe Big C has embarrassed them also. Have you guys figured out what office he is running for?
Good one, Cindy.
From Freemont, NE’s website:
http://www.fremontne.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=710
Cindy – Thank you for working to calm the waters here and in other
jurisdictions.
Not sure why Corey is taking the direction he is when the
Arizona case may be headed to court soon. Let them take the flak
and pay the massive legal fees. May well not be a road Virginia wants
to go down.
He wants to get elected to a different office or re-elected. Leopards don’t change their spots. That is what it was all about in 2007 and that is what it is about now.
That was EXCELLENT Cindy!!!
Well, I don’t know if this is a sign of an increase in illegals into the area, but it sure is a sign of increased danger to people traveling north on RT28 on friday evenings. I came south on RT28 around 5PM and the meat supply place on the left after the bridge and down from the auction barn had cars sticking out in the slow lanes from its parking lot. The middle turn lanes had four cars each, and a white van was sitting in the north bound slow lane, but facing south waiting to get into the lot. I’ve seen this action every friday evening with the lot full of Latin Americans waiting in a huge crowd to get whatever it is that they’re there for. There’s going to be a major accident there eventually. The first people into the lot will never be able to leave, and so I have no idea how they expect the situation to work.
Alert the police if there is a traffic danger. It doesn’t matter who it is…danger is danger.
Be glad you didnt come in contact with Sudley Road and Sudley Manor Drive. Talk about not being able to get here from there.
I thought this was referring to Obama and his efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform (a.k.a. amnesty) until I realized the poster was CindyB.
All this concern over the Constitution for non-citizens from folks who are okay with the constitutionality of the “right” to an abortion and the “power” for the government to mandate health insurance. Not all aspects of the Constitution apply to non-citizens however e.g. there is no right to vote.
I understand that it is problematic to use probable cause for checking status. But if the legislation couples probable cause with a valid reason to stop someone (e.g. burned out tail lights), then it might pass constitutional muster.
On the same day that Mr. Stewart was making his announcement, a forum was held in Arlington to explain the Secure Communities program to the immigrant community, which the police chief and the sheriff are obligated to participate in. Their attitude is one of reassurance not of grandstanding. I watched the Spanish language news last night, and the two stories were juxtaposed for an effective comparison. Two counties, two different approaches.
Ahhh, the old burned out tail light. Been there, had mine burned.
Non-citizens are protected by our Constitution. But that isn’t my issue. My issue is the hypocrisy of calling a plan a ‘rule of law’ plan when it incorporates some very questionable practices that violate rule of law.
For example, his first line: Enhance Police Powers to Capture, Detain, and help Deport Criminal Aliens
Only federal judges are supposed to deport anyone.
But, there seem to be other issues later this evening. See latest post.
Hi Firedancer! Good to see you. Arlington, in addition to the accolades you just gave them, should be commended on their top notch rankings in the USA School rankings in Newsweek. Arlington Schools certainly kicked everyone else’s butt in the area.
In fairness to our Chief Deane, He has been a voice of reason throughout Prince William’s immigration debate. He was vilified and excoriated for his efforts.
Firedancer, Arlington’s County Board also initiated the 2008 Diversity Dialogues in which nearly 500 members of the community participated and discussed how Arlington could be enriched by interaction from all sectors of their population. Dulce Carillo helped that effort and was another mentor for what evolved into the neighborhood improvement circles in 2009 in Manassas.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/18/AR2009021801111.html
I would imagine that the number of illegal aliens in Arlington County is much lower than Prince William County due to the high cost of living in Arlington. Anybody have any comparisons of relative numbers of illegal aliens in Arlington and Prince William counties?
I agree that interactions among the diverse sectors of the population are a good thing. I submit that those interactions should be reserved for those who are in our country legally. I will work hard to make our county, state, and country as unwelcoming as possible to those who are crossing our borders illegally.
“In fairness to our Chief Deane, He has been a voice of reason throughout Prince William’s immigration debate.”
Totally disagree. There’s nothing reasonable about encouraging illegal immigration. And he did. He’s an activist with an axe to grind, working to promulgate his point of view.
“I watched the Spanish language news last night, and the two stories were juxtaposed for an effective comparison. Two counties, two different approaches.”
Excellent! Thanks for the good news.
Rick, that simply isn’t true and Deane is not an elitist. Good lord, the man is from Green County Virginia. No one from Green County is an elitist. I think his dad was sheriff.
You have truly drunk the velvet kool aid if you believe this.
He knows how to best utilize his officers on the budget he as to work with. Using his officers to do a federal job they are not authorized to do is not the best use of human resources and alienates and tears down trust with one part of the population. Let ICE do the work of ICE.
Kelly, I would love to know those comparisons also. I think Arlington has handled things much better than PW with the immigrant populations.
I don’t know how you ever get numbers on illegal immigrants.
Kelly, if you find them, please post. I am not having any luck. I think the shadows element of the illegal condition will make this quest impossible.