No. Va. county sees signs of change amid crackdown
Pedro Vargas, 24, left, with his son Francisco Vargas, 4, packs up boxes at his store, Club Video Mexico, in Woodbridge, Va., Monday, April 7, 2008. Vargas, a legal resident, has decided to move his now flagging business to Utah, months after Prince William County passed policies cracking down on illegal immigrants.
Published: May 27, 2008
Updated: May 27, 2008
WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) _ Business at Pedro Vargas’ store, Club Video Mexico, has slid so steeply that only eight people walked through the door one day last month.
One thing he has been selling, however, are one-way bus tickets from northern Virginia to Texas and Mexico. Soon he’ll be getting his own ticket out of town — seeking a friendlier and more lucrative place to do business.
“The last few months have been very, very bad for us,“ said Vargas, who plans to move this summer from Prince William County, about 25 miles southwest of Washington, to Utah, where he recently opened another store.
Many say Prince William’s new crackdown on illegal immigrants has created an environment so unfriendly that Hispanic people are leaving the county of more than 350,000, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau was nearly 15 percent Hispanic in 2006.
The county’s policy, which has drawn heated debate and national attention, directs police officers to check the immigration status of everyone they arrest. Beginning July 1, illegal immigrants also will be denied certain services, such as business licenses and mortgage and rental assistance.
“That’s like a smack in the face to me,“ said Vargas, a 24-year-old Mexican immigrant who is living in the U.S. legally. “I’ve been living here my whole life, and now they pass this law?“
It is difficult to measure how many Hispanic people have left and their exact reasons for leaving. In addition to immigrants’ fears over the new policy, the souring economy and mortgage crisis may be contributing to the departures. But anecdotal evidence increasingly points to a sudden cultural and economic shift in the county’s Hispanic community.
Several Hispanic business owners say their sales have plummeted. Prince William school officials say enrollment in English for speakers of other languages classes fell nearly 6 percent to 12,645 students between Sept. 30 and March 31. Other northern Virginia counties had increases.
Salvador Caballero, pastor of Trono de Jehova Pentecostal Church in Woodbridge, said attendance at his Spanish services has shrunk to about 130 people from 200 in recent months. Some people, he said, have stopped coming because they’re afraid to be out in public, and others have moved to other states or back to their home countries.
One family of seven packed up and went to Texas. “All they told me is they were going because they were afraid here,“ Caballero said. “We’re losing a lot of people here in Prince William. I hope they’re not going to be sorry later.“
Stephen Fuller, director for the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., said the policy could end up tainting the county’s image and scaring off investors.
“I think this will affect the county for several years even if they reverse the policy tonight,“ Fuller said. “The damage has been done. It’s like personal reputation; it’s hard to build that back.“
Supporters of the changes, however, say the crackdown is working as intended. Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart said it already has had a “tremendous positive effect on the quality of life.“
County supervisors recently approved spending $2.6 million for the initiative. Prince William also has incurred higher-than-expected costs at the local jail due to overcrowding. Authorities were taking weeks to pick up suspected illegal immigrants rather than the 72 hours mandated under a partnership between the county and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. County officials were forced to pay to house inmates in other jails in the state.
A policy that went into effect in March directed police to check the residency status of anyone who is detained, no matter how minor the offense, if they believed the person might in the United States illegally. Prince William County supervisors changed the policy last month; now police check the immigration status of all suspects, but only after they are arrested.
Stewart says the change will reduce the possibility of racial-profiling accusations because everyone will now be checked.
But Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the organization still opposes the policy.
“This is an ordinance that through and through sends the message to police that they ought to be stopping and detaining people that speak a foreign language and appear to be from another country,“ he said.
Nancy Lyall, of the immigrant advocacy group Mexicans Without Borders, says she doesn’t know what effect the policy change will have, but that it appears to have already damaged the Hispanic community.
“The community is still completely devastated,“ she said. “And for those obviously that have left, there’s certainly no reason for them to go back.“
At the taco restaurant Ricos Tacos Moya, business has dropped by about 50 percent, and owner Salvador Moya said he doesn’t know how much longer he’ll be able to hold on. He was already forced to shut the doors this year on a second, much larger location in nearby Dumfries, where the bar and dance floor drew some 200 customers each weekend.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do,“ said the Mexican native, who moved to the area 20 years ago and has worked his way up from being a dishwasher. “When the law started, business went down, down, down.“
Reader Reactions
zcxnissan, Just about all you hear that is negative about Jimmy Carter is false. The Republicans have put so much propaganda out there that even the Democrats believe some of it.
Jimmy Carter being a good Christian decided to turn the other cheek and let the poor Watergate embarrased Republicans have some red meat.
All of the “Stagflation” came from the oil embargo that happened during Nixon’s last term. President Fords biggest economic problem was inflation. He even invented a button, called the WIN button, or whip inflation now. You see, z, the world didn’t began with president Carter. Carter will be rated much higher than any Republican of the last century or the present one.
zcxnissan, The administration knew exactly what was going on with the subprime mess. In fact they engineered it to keep the failing domestic economy going. It was the only “game” in town.
It would not have happened under Gore or Kerry. There is always a scam in the works, people need to stay awake and quit worrying about what Britany and Paris are doing.
zcxnisson, Outsourcing became all the rage after Republicans in congress and Bush in the White House, gave huge tax breaks to businesses so they could move American jobs out of the country. Not one net manufacturing job has been created since Bush has been president. Illegals could not easily work their way into good paying manufacturing jobs.
The right wing businesses who have supported Bush, are happy with the cheap labor.
zcxnissan, NAFTA was signed, sealed and delivered, the day Clinton was sworn in. All he did was try to put safeguards in before it was ratified. The Republican corporate lobbyists who got NAFTA passed did it by telling American workers that third world wages would would rise up towards first world wages(ours). They are in some instances, but they have had to come here to get them.
In essence stoneboiler you are saying that even though NAFTA was pushed on us by Clinton that he is not to blame for any of the problems caused by outsourcing and the mortgage mess, which incidentally was starting to take shape with predatory lending and lending to individuals who couldn’t possibly afford to or even want to pay back their credit, as for Reagan and Clinton and Bush they all dropped the ball on immigration. This has become a problem of epic proportions, a good long and hard recession could serve to flush out these freeloaders. Besides Reagan had to clean up Carter’s “Stagflation” mess. LOL. Clinton had all the positive things in place for him, he only succeeded in destroying growth with the three tax hikes. I dare Obama or McCain to raise taxes, or even hint at it. I don’t trust either on immigration or taxes. Chris Cummings
Sorry to see Mr. Vargas go but if he is offended by Illegals being arrested his judgment is impaired..also I am sure many legals may not be happy about this but it opens up more opportunities for them with illegals moving on…Thed fact that illegals were getting business licenses and mortgages in the past is appalling and contributed to some of the problems we have now….I welcome all other nationalities to PW county just as long as they are legal.
When this country has had a vibrant economy, immigration has been almost totally off of the radar screen.
There were nearly 20 million jobs created during Clinton’s two terms. there was about the same created during Reagans two terms, but most of them were in fast food and forcing women into the workplace to make ends meet.
Not one net quality job has been created in Bush’s two terms. Most of the unemployment numbers have been tweaked and twisted to fit the usual conservative “rosy senario.“
I said and i will say it again businesses that cater to illegals are just as bad as the illegals themselves, it does not matter if they are Korean, Chinese, Russian, English, Hispanic, whatever. With that much said, being illegal is still a crime, as well as employing them, housing them, aiding and abetting, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. Consult “Immigration Law” if you are not sure. Chris Cummings
I have never seen so much racism targeted at legal immigrants until i met some of the wacko posters on the insidenova message boards. It is disturbing. Hardly is unemployment the reason that these illegals are moving out Ray. Virginia, particularly No. Va. has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. I believe that Va. was in the 3-3.5% unemployment range. Even if legal students are leaving the ESOL program that is still a savings in the budget, albeit why would you leave if you are a legal citizen. Makes absolutely no sense Ray. What Bush has to do with this, i don’t know, i would think since you must be a Bush supporter, because your suggestions sound a lot like the Amnesty bill that failed in Congress. You know the one he was pushing on the legal citizens of the US. They also got stuffed on their two recent attempts to slip amnesty into the Ag bill and the War bill. LOL. I post late because i don’t post 24/7 like some “liberal shrews” do. I like to digest the untruths and lies before i post facts. Over 12,400 ESOLS have left the program in recent months. We all know it is saving money and class sizes have gotten smaller all of a sudden. Resolution must be working, because all i hear on these mb’s is crying, whining, gnashing of teeth, overt racist comments, the usual lib game plan. Chris Cummings
We are in the 28th year of"Reaganomics” new world order, global economy, bust the unions, outsource the jobs, NAFTA.
As decent paying jobs disappear, along with the ‘giant sucking sound’ that Ross Perot talked about, a vacuum has been created for bringing low paying jobs into this country. More and more minimum wage and below minimum wage jobs are going to keep coming. As long as the “natives” are willing to take the low paying jobs the immigrants may not come back, but if they don’t, someone will come to do the landscaping and janitorial type jobs. Nothing wrong with these jobs, just late hours and hard work.
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