Blogger, filmmaker join forces to protest immigration policies

The politically-charged subject of illegal immigration and all the debate that surrounds it has led to the formation of yet another local grassroots group.

The makers of the YouTube documentary “9500 Liberty" are combining with local blogger Alanna Almeda to protest policies recently implemented by Prince William County and Manassas directed toward illegal immigrants.

The group has yet to come up with the name, but around 75 people came out for the group’s first meeting at the Mexican restaurant El Portal in Woodbridge last Friday.

According to Almeda, the group plans on meeting for dinner every other Friday to discuss the direction of the group and to support area Hispanic businesses.

“By joining of the forces, I think we will have a powerful medium,” said Almeda, a stay-at-home mother of four in Haymarket who runs the political blog www.antibvbl.net. “They have video and we can provide the discussion with the blog. We’ll put those two things together to put message out there.”

“9500 Liberty” was created last year to stir up the immigration debate as county policy makers were in the midst of forming legislation to deny certain services to illegal immigrants. The documentary’s name specifically refers to a partially demolished house in Manassas that has sported numerous political messages regarding race, the county’s resolution and the city’s imminent involvement in the Immigration & Customs Enforcement 287(g) program.

Almeda said she supports the Prince William-Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center’s involvement in the 287(g) program, which helps process and deport criminal illegal immigrants. However, she said the resolution passed by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors last October as well the county and city’s involvement in the 287(g) program were fiscally unnecessary scare tactics.

Enforcing the resolution in the jail and on the streets, buying cameras for police cars, employing the criminal alien unit and restricting social services to illegal immigrants will cost the county an estimated $6.4 million in fiscal 2009, according to Prince William County spokeswoman Liz Bahrns.

“How can we spend more money on this than transportation improvements?” asked Almeda. “... It definitely has scared people, the resolution has already had its intended affect, to rid the county of Hispanics.”

Almeda started her Web site as a response to the political blog run by Greg Letiecq, the president of the anti-illegal immigration group Help Save Manassas. Almeda claims that she was shut out of posting on Letiecq’s blog, bvbl.net, because he didn’t like what she was posting online.

Consequently, Almeda created a nearly identical Web site with the opposite name.

On a recent post, Almeda thanked her supporters for showing up at the meeting. Many of the attendees at the first meeting are bloggers on antibvbl.net.

Almeda hopes many of those voices present at that meeting will be raised as the county goes through its budget process this month.

“The immigration resolution is a ‘failed’ experiment in Prince William County,” wrote Almeda on her blog. “Socially and fiscally, our county is crumbling under its pressure. Let’s talk about specific ways we believe we can move forward.”