Anti-BVBL

The Board will have both a 2:oopm & 7:30pm session today. The main items on the agenda are the 2008 Citizens Satisfaction Survey Results and the Illegal Immigration Status report.

Here’s the agenda for the meeting.

Here you go.

9500Liberty Special Screening
Thursday August 7th • 6:30 PM
James J. McCoart Administration Building • Occoquan Room
1 County Complex Court • Woodbridge, VA

6:30 PM
Immigration Policy Change in Prince William County (6 minutes)
Followed by a 20 minute Q/A about PWC’s current immigration policy

7:00 PM
9500Liberty Special Screening August Update (80 minutes)
Followed by a one hour discussion and Q/A

Added scenes will include Chris Pannell, a former Help Save Manassas Executive Board Member, explaining why she left Help Save Manassas, the first "Save Prince William County’s Economy " Party, and Chief Deane’s official response to the Letiecq/Stewart charges of treason before the Board of Supervisors April 1, 2008.

Chairman Stewart is on the press circuit again ‘touting the benefits’ of the ‘Immigration Resolution’. And, this time instead of his usual anecdotal stories about shorter lines at emergency rooms, or drops in ESOL students, he suggests there is a connection between a lower crime rate and the Immigration Resolution. Frankly, it’s laughable.

According to the DC Examiner, Stewart’s theory is that crime rates drop when ‘illegals’ leave. The converse of this statement being that the crime rate increases when ‘illegals’ arrive. It’s a pretty simple hypothesis and easily verifiable. If this hypothesis is true, as we have this supposed influx of ‘illegals’ that purportedly necessitated some action on our part, we should see clear statistical evidence witnessed by higher crime rates in the years preceding the resolution.

So, let’s review, according to the article, in 2004 the crime rate per thousand is 24.5, then in 2005, as more ‘illegals’ are ‘flooding into the area bringing their lawlessness and economic hardship with them’, using Stewart’s logic a higher crime rate is excepted but that’s not what happens! Prince William County experiences a drop in crime equal to that of the drop between 2006 and 2007. Additionally, it’s not just a drop from 2004 to 2005 but AGAIN from 2005 to 2006, then the same from 2006 to 2007! Very simply, Stewart’s theory is proven incorrect. The resolution can not reasonably be referenced as the reason why the crime rate has once again decreased for the 4th year in a row.

Part I

Part II

ABC News 7 Report concerning the changes made to the ‘Immigration Resolution’ which will now check status of only those arrested and do away with the ‘probable cause’ part of the resolution.

Unfortunately, his predictions about what will happen in Prince William County are starting to come to fruition.

The trust factor in the immigrant community is eroding which could translate into an increase level of unsolved crimes. Perceptions of racism have increased just as suggested. We have a more divisive community with more radicalized, polorized camps which cause both groups to be more difficult to deal with. Calls are coming into the police station for things that are trivial in nature. For instance, an immigrant woman phoned in to complain that a police cruiser was following her to closely and she felt intimidated by this action. Just as he projected - there will be higher taxes.

He goes on to make further predictions that have yet to been realized, but if we continue down this path, these scenarios seem entirely plausible. He suggests that there could be a surge in crime by disenfranchised youths and angry immigrants. Additionally cases of vigilantism could occur which will further erode trust. Overall, his forecast has been correct, which causes me concern for these other items which he envisions could happen.

Chairman Stewart repeatedly claims that the resolution is intended to capture criminals who have committed crimes on top of violating federal immigration law.  No problem with that right?  Deport the criminals.  But what about police inquiring into the status of someone playing music too loud?  Surely that couldn’t happen, but yet according to the DC Examiner it has.  Claims that there would be no Gestapo knocking on your door asking for your papers are now suspect.

And so it begins… are the prostitutes victims or are they criminals?  Yesterday’s Post article, Immigration-Linked Prostitution Cases Pose Challenge; Pr. William Crackdown Highlights Complex Legal Issues states -

…these immigration-related cases raise complex questions about the interplay of local and federal law and are likely to pose special challenges for Prince William County police in the push against illegal immigration that began this week.

The police department has said it will treat illegal immigrants who are criminals differently from those who are crime victims. But in prostitution cases, the women involved might be both.

These types of cases are going to cause a nightmare for our local police who will have to add extra time to investigating in order to ascertain which of these two categories suspects fall into - are they victims or criminals. As word gets out about the differences between the two groups one could expect to see a lot less ‘criminals’ and a lot more ‘victims’ being caught.