It has come to our attention that Corey plans on submitting his “virginia rule of law resolution” to the Legislative package this afternoon.
In accordance with the report’s strong endorsement of Prince William County’s policy, I would like to add the following language to our legislative agenda.
Virginia Rule of Law
Prince William County has implemented an effective policy whereby local law enforcement is mandated to determine legal status during any physical custodial arrest, which strengthens local law enforcement’s standing authority to determine legal residency status during any lawful stop, detention, or arrest.
Given the County’s successful implementation of this policy, Prince William supports implementation of similar sound policies by all law enforcement agencies within the Commonwealth. The Prince William County policy provides for mandatory legal residency status checks for all suspects placed under physical custodial arrest.
The County’s policy also forbids racial profiling, and mandates protection of victims regardless of their immigration status. The County has established a formal agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), under which criminal illegal immigrants are turned over to federal authorities when they are released from detention or upon completion of their sentence.
Prince William supports the implementation of similar policies and programs that will enhance public safety across the Commonwealth
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
www.co.prince-william.va.us
Anyone remember the movie “Groundhog Day” ? I do, this is like reliving the ambush of the original immigration resolution.
First of all, citizens have not had an opportunity to review the UVA report, which, by the way, Corey is basing the urgent need for his last minute addition of the Virginia Rule of Law Campaign.
Whether or not you agree with the Virginia Rule of Law Campaign is not the issue right now. Why is Corey so desperate for the camera and spotlight? Why is he willing to abrogate his responisiblty to provide open government and transparency in order to include this last minute change in the Legislative Agenda, denying an opportunity for citizens to comment?
Finally, Corey is postulating that because UVA has some favorable conclusions, the logical conclusion would be to implement the current PWC immigration policy statewide. That would be an interesting disucussion IF his Virginia Rule of Law blather were ANYTHING similar to what UVA reported. Simply put, the Virginia Rule of Law looks NOTHING like what PWC implemented in 2007.
“Simply put, the Virginia Rule of Law looks NOTHING like what PWC implemented in 2007.”
Absolutely correct. The Virginia Rule of Law is nothing but a collection of whatever measures Corey thinks he can sell to the public as cracking down on illegals that are palatable to his corporate handlers who enrich themselves on illegal labor.
If the 2007 PWC policy was so effective, why are the illegal alien boarding houses still active and doing well in my neighborhood?
The urgency here? Alanna nailed that one in the other thread pointing out that Corey is gearing up for the Republican Advance.
Virginia Rule of Law is a PAC for Stewart.
I am still trying to figure out what happened. Perhaps I missed something.
It sounds like I am getting ready to find out.
I just listened to the discussion and the vote and agree with Corey on this one. He didn’t try to ram his entire Virginia Rule of Law campaign through in the form of the PWC legislative agenda as we feared earlier. It was only about checking immigration status when law enforcement authorities have actually taken someone into physical custody. Chief Deane had reviewed this and expressed no objection. This is a measure that has worked in PWC.
Corey’s mistake was not getting this thing out for public review much sooner. We shouldn’t have to be speculating on what things might be even after the BOCS meeting has already started.
Attaching the recommendation to adopt the PWC model is now attached to the legislative package being sent to the GA. Only Nohe and Principi voted no. Corey would not compromise on the change of language. Mike May felt it was an unfunded mandate but still voted yes.
Expect this to come up again. Thanks Marty and Frank for having the integrity to question and to suggest a better way than trusting someone who has not proven to be trustworthy.
Unfortunately, the citizens of Prince William County were once again sidelined and kept from having any input into this plan. There was no advanced notice so citizens could speak and the other supervisors were blindsided.
When will they learn? Corey does this each and every time and they keep taking it.
“Lucy” Stewart Charlie Browned them all once again.
@Need to Know
I could have sworn that I heard Chief Deane say he wasn’t endorsing it because it wasn’t his job to do that. Corey is up to something. He would not compromise on recommendation.
I also believe saying that illegal immigration is an unfunded mandate and that the federal government isn’t doing its job is just trash rhetoric. If they ‘aren’t doing their job’ it has sure beein going on for a long time.
The citizens should have had advanced notice and time to give input. The supervisors should not have been blindsided either.
Hmmm, so denying funded stimulus money represents “true” conservatism but approving an unfunded mandate IS “true” conservatism” ? Boy, I love how people can make any issue fit their agenda.
Marty and Frank, you guys did good. That Corey felt compelled to sneak this in last minute is pretty telling, of what, I am not sure. I have no doubt he will lie in some way to say that this policy is tough like Arizona even though we all know it is nothing like Arizona. Yes, ask localities to waste precious money on immigration enforcement instead of social services that help children. What a farce.
I try to be a fair person. To Corey’s credit, he did speak to the issue of the resolution changing and that PWC adopted a new policy that replaced probable cause with physical arrest. He said that physical arrest was the better way to go.
Many of us here fought for this change and we appreciate Corey acknowledging that the current method was the better way to go.
Moon, I agree. It was nice to hear that Corey finally acknowledged the change we citizens fought so hard to achieve. My concern is that Corey tends towards the side of drama and I wonder if how he will try to spin this.
Corey up to something? Did you catch the little piece in the Sunday WaPo Prince William Edition about hosting a suite at the Republican Advance?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2010/11/allen_marshall_stewart_all_to.html
I have not seen the UVa report; but the news I have heard and the discussion I have seen leads me to conclude provisionally that the report says the program in PWC has worked to some extent with regard to the worst of the problems created by illegal immigration. However, as Need to Know indicated in #1, problems do remain to be solved through effective government attention to standing, non-discriminatory ordinances.
If the UVa report is indeed as I am currently envisioning it to be, the conclusions leave me a bit uncomfortable in that they may be somewhat misleading. It is no secret that Sterling Park in Loudoun was having problems on a scale of those being experienced and debated in PWC. I am not just passing along hearsay and news reports. I was actually out on the streets cooperating with law enforcement at the height of the problems and I saw them up close and many times personal. I am still out on the streets and still cooperating with law enforcement. I am in a position, therefore, to make some comparative conclusions — which, I must emphasize, are purely my own, backed up by the thoughts of Mrs. W, who has been out on the streets with me every step of the way. This is how we see it from our perspective.
(1) About five years ago, the Park began experiencing a significant increase in crime, including street crime, vice (drugs and prostitution), and the blatant violation of quality of life zoning ordinances. Having been a homeowner in this community for over 30 years (with time off for overseas service), I can tell you that this was a shock to the residents of what was once a peaceful and orderly bedroom community. They went from a posture of focusing on their own lives and on beneficial community activities to one of being afraid even to walk the dog after dark.
(2) The problem was pinpointed as the burgeoning flow of new immigrants out of Herndon and western Fairfax into our community, where jobs created by a quantum jump in development were available and the housing was considerably more affordable, not forgetting Herndon’s own crackdown on illegal immigration. It was not a question of deciding that all immigrants were bad but a recognition that, in any influx of this type, the bad were intermingled with the good and had the potential for spoiling the quality of life for all. Eventually, there was a revolt involving both citizens and legal immigrants who were seeing their lives changed drastically, their property values sinking, the quality of once excellent schools diminishing, and their community taking on some of the aspects of suburban decay. There was anger out there, and the anger was turned most definitely toward that part of the new immigration population which was clearly causing the problems.
(3) But that anger turned even more drastically in the direction of local government, which was deemed by many to have failed utterly in its duty of enforcing existing quality of life ordinances and creating new ordinances to address new problems. Some anger was also directed at law enforcement but with a recognition that we were a county in transition from rural and semi-rural to half suburban and half semi-rural and that law enforcement in terms of sheer numbers and strategy had not yet caught up to the changes. This citizen revolt caused both a wakeup of local government and a revision of law enforcement efforts. At no time was there a serious call for a comprehensive resolution of the type passed in PWC, although some of the angrier citizens would probably have sought such if the numbers were on their side. There were, however, some informal moves in that direction, especially in convincing law enforcement to finally join the 287.g program. These moves were given increased impetus by several deadly shootings in the parking lots of our main shopping center, a couple of drive-by shootings on our residential streets, and the rape of several elderly women by an illegal immigrant who had several times previously slipped through the normal legal system because of negligence and inadequate attention. In effect, although there were some calls for our county to imitate the path chosen by your Stewart administration, that never materialized.
(4) This last statement still amazes me. It is no secret to some of you that I spent a part of my own career working some dark and dangerous foreign city streets. I know what those streets are like. But I also worked often in places where cultural, ethnic, and religious rivalry and hostility were almost the staff of life. In fact, I came much closer to losing my own life in those circumstances than I ever did in Vietnam. So, what surprised me very much in the Park was that the racial aspect of the increasing problems did not win out over the sensible approach to using local government and law enforcement to enforce both the law and the quality of life. This same approach was embedded in the Neighborhood Watch program — at least, in our own. As I look back at those dark days just a few years ago, I have concluded that it was the cosmopolitan aspect of our community which kept the racial thing pretty much at bay. This community has long had a mix of ethnicities, both citizens and legal immigrants. It was not unusual to live next to a person with a different skin color, accented English and sometimes little English at all, to interact with these people in the neighborhood, at community activities, and in the schools. Secondly, many here have lived, worked, and traveled overseas. They are not unused to adjusting to cultural differences. The end result, in my opinion, is that racism did not win out. The primary villain became behavior by individuals regardless of race or origin. I would like to say that I am mighty proud of many of my fellow Parkers because of that.
(5) A problem in my own estimation in all this is that the new immigrants themselves came late to the table re a realization that it was behavior and not race which was the cause for citizen unrest. Some of that can be attributed for sure to a lack of education and a lack of understanding of the quality of life rules in the foreign place to which one has relocated. It would take awhile to understand all this. However, some of this was also attributable to the idea that living in America meant doing whatever one damned well pleased, especially if it meant convenience in one’s private life. In short, I could give a crap what the neighbors think and, by extension, if I have to break local laws to do what I want to do, I will do just that, especially since local laws do not seem to be enforced very thoroughly and I think I need to do these things to survive in the shadows in this country. But the capper in all this, in my opinion, was the reinforcement of the “bad behavior” by the “race baiters” — those who shrilly claimed that any effort to crack down on the illegalities perpetrated by the newcomers was the result of racism, not a reaction to the bad behavior. That seemed to me to give cover to those who, while recognizing their behaviors were unacceptable to their neighbors, decided that they could go right on doing it under the cover of the racism accusation. In effect, a new kind of “race card” was put into play. At a certain point, I sensed that even I was being considered by some not as a participant in an egalitarian enforcement of local law and the covenant rules in our community but as a racial intimidator of some sort.
(6) So, to backtrack a bit, what did I find when I first came out of professional retirement and went out into the local streets? Hispanic gangbangers. I had been asleep in my retirement. My Hispanic son-in-law woke me up. They had tried to recruit him. Where? Right in my own block. I then found that these guys were not only on the streets but actually living here in group houses. They, in fact, were patroling my streets to keep rival gangs from infiltrating and were even running an anti-Anglo protection racket. That is when the war began. That is when the HOA, law enforcement, and Neighborhood Watch first formed an alliance for battle. We were joined by a much enhanced and effective regional anti-gang task force provided with funds courtesy of the efforts of Frank Wolf. It was for awhile an open battle with both sides visible; but, by God, we won it. The pressure on the gangbangers became too much. They ran for it. They were no longer visible, although one suspected that some were still around and hiding under cover in the community. But one thing was certain: they no longer carried out their criminal operations on our streets.
(7) So, then it was on to the rest of it. Target primero: the groups of young Hispanics, male and female, with the time to drive around in their used cars and hang around the community with their idle hands and the potential for causing citizens to be afraid — the untoward comments aimed at passing females, the beer cans littering lawns and streets, the overcrowding of small homes with a resultant increase in the common condo fees for such things as water and repairs. And then there were the “trouble houses.” We went up against some real doozies. Blatantly open houses of prostitution and drugs on streets where our kids played. Then, at night, the outside pimps and pushers bringing in their girls and goods like a pizza delivery service. It took some damned hard work; but one by one our alliance began to either shut them down or chase them off. Sometimes just the visible “heat” worked, even without the arrests.
(8) Sometimes now, when I return from patrol, my report sheet is nearly empty. We have not been up against the gangbangers for quite awhile now. The gangs of roving and loitering teens have largely disappeared. The overcrowding is less. The crime stats are way down. Our new immigrant population is more or less the same when counted percentage-wise house by house but the violations of the laws and rules of quality of life are way down and are most often committed by newbies who have not yet adjusted. As Mrs. W remarked to me recently on one very quiet patrol night: “This is not the same place it was just a few years ago in terms of the behavior problem. Yes, we still have some things to watch for and we still watch for them; but, by and large, this NW business can sometimes become damned boring these days. Even gives me time to blog.
(9) But something does still bother me, and perhaps it pertains to the PWC situation as well. This change in the place where I live, did it come about because we were out there going face to face with the bad behavior, because our excellent police officers became much more aggressive and much more effective, because local government finally awoke to the need to enforce quality of life ordinances (a subject on which some citizens of the Park will argue contrarily with me), and because many of the new immigrants finally awoke to the fact that you can avoid trouble by obeying the law and rules in this American society? Or, are we much better off because a failing economy drove off many of those inclined toward bad behavior and left behind a larger percentage of those immigrants who have decided that cooperation is the way toward acceptance? One has to admit to a coincidence between the failing economy and very visible evidence of positive change in our community. I hate like the dickens to think that it was the failing economy and not our own efforts which was the larger factor in changing our situation for the better. That would mean in a sense that we actually acquired the current comparative peace of our own neighborhood on the backs of millions of Americans and immigrants who are suffering financially. That would mean that we had not won a victory so much as we were the recipients of a turn of events which benefitted us. I must admit that I don’t know the answer yet. And perhaps you in PWC do not have the answer as well. Perhaps the conclusions of the UVa report will lead some to believe that your own efforts carried the day when in reality it was only the strange hand of fate which gave you what seems like progress.
Wolverine, I think it was the perfect storm. Those who were transient moved on in search of work. I expect your hard work disturbed many people’s comfort level. We will never know in PWC what caused things to settle down. Probably each person has their own idea. Mine is a multitude of factors.
I have had several people tell me that the original resolution did what they intended for it to do. It scared people and disturbed their comfort level.
Wolverine,
The Washington post article posted above addresses some of your questions.
@Moon-howler
Moon – you are correct that Chief Deane did not endorse it. Publicly endorsing or opposing any legislation would be inappropriate for him. I think he reviewed it and found no problems with it. Apparently, he helped with the wording also. That was my understanding.
Anyone who reads my posts here knows that I am certainly not a Corey Stewart fan. However, I have to be honest. I think that the revised measure the BOCS implemented (the one we are discussing here) worked while avoiding legal the legal problems of “probable cause.”
That does not change my mind about the “Virginia Rule of Law” that I consider still just an ineffective publicity stunt on Corey’s part. The best way to deal with illegal immigration is to crack down on the illegal employers. The policy of checking the immigration status of anyone already in physical custody has helped improve the situation, but will not solve the problem.
NTK, do you really think this is something we should be advertising? We will probably never know what Chief Deane really thinks. He works for the board and didn’t get to be Chief by being an upstart. When Mrs. Caddigan started saying it was ok if Chief Deane was behind it I wanted to shake her. Good that she considered his feelings. Bad that she was a naive Nelly and didn’t say she would wait and ask him herself, rather than letting the Fox deliver the message.
PWC spent millions to really get where Secure Communities program where documentation is checked at the local jail. (an Obama initiative.)
The 800 pound gorilla in the room still is the fact that PWC’s ‘probable cause’ mandate was repealed after only being in place for a few weeks and the route the county took was a costly and dysfunctional way to end up with the preferred approach of Janet Napolitano and President Obama.
How do we crack down on employers more than the Obama admistration is doing? They are doing it electronically.
NTK, pardon my grouchiness. I just know something that will have an undesirable outcome or unintended consequence happened yesterday. I am just not sure what.
That was just not the way to conduct public business, which you and I both agree on.
Moon – I share your gut feelings. Even if I agree with the substance of something Corey does, I also still have a nagging concern of what might lie beneath it, or what other motives might be driving it. I just don’t want to be a Corey basher who never acknowledges when I do agree with him.
I think everyone including you, me and perhaps even Corey are pleased with where we are now with immigration. The problem came when Corey stole the issue from John Stirrup and used it to create a media sensation around himself. I think that if John Stirrup had remained the lead on this issue that we would have had a much less costly, less publicized debate and ended up about where we are anyway. The main difference was that John was pursuing something he sincerely felt was important. I understand that you Elena, and others disagreed, but that’s OK. All views should have been part of a community debate. Corey saw an opportunity to raise his own state and national profile at our expense and ran with it.
If John Stirrup’s version remained, we would have kids who couldn’t go to swimming pools or libraries and the county would have been sued. It was a bad plan, contrived by FAIR, just like the AZ debacle. Stirrup was simply selected to present it. Funny how many people take credit for that piece of rubbish. Mr. Duecaster, Mike Hethmon, and at first, Mr. Stirrup claimed the Illegal Immigration Resolution that became the Rule of Law Resolution.
Words out of people’s own mouths bear this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeoTsapAmK4
How many times did John Stirrup drive around the Westgate and Loch Lomond neighborhoods before constituents start raising hell? I doubt if he went once.
And you are right. We do not agree. When a supervisor is a member of a group like Help Save Manassas, it is hard to give him much credit for anything.
Situational conservatism or liberalism is the way of the world now. Anyone who truely believes that anyone in the public eye, elected or media has any true values other than their own personal gain is simply stupid or delusional. When it comes to their wallets and personal agendas there are no values that apply to THEM!
Catholics call them “narthex catholics”. Once they leave the church and pass through the narthex – all bets are off. They just don’t live as they just professed while in church. Since most of them are Catholic, they’ll know exactly what I mean.
That sounds like a drug…narthex. Something for arthritis pain.
Protestants do that also.