Reaction to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors’ unanimous vote earlier this week to deny to illegal immigrants county benefits given to legal recipients was distressingly predictable. Purple epithets like “racists” and “xenophobes” filled the air after supervisors approved what critics inaccurately described as “one of the toughest crackdownson illegal immigration” in the nation.
But the approved measure, which was watered down considerably from the original version introduced last month by Supervisor John Stirrup Jr., R-Gainesville, only appears draconian because too many officials elsewhere in government have flatly refused to enforce our nation’s immigration laws. When a handful of local office holders step up and do their duty, it makes national news.
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The premise that people who illegally enter the United States should enjoy the same privileges as taxpaying citizens and legal immigrants is a dangerous conceit because it turns an inherently unlawful act into an entitlement. It literally makes crime pay.
Yet those who point this fact out are constantly accused of bigotry by critics who presume to know the hearts of their opponents. Even Prince William Police Chief Charlie Deane played this shameful rhetorical game with his suggestion that the county would be seen “as a racist community intent on driving out a single population.” Prince William residents should ask Deane if his ludicrous assessment of them and the supervisors is an appropriate attitude for a law enforcement officer pledged to protect all citizens.
The measure approved Tuesday directs police officers to check the legal status of anybody in police custody they have probable cause to suspect of being an illegal immigrant. This is something every jurisdiction in the country should have been doing all along.
The resolution also requires County Executive Craig Gerhart to identify three categories of public services: those mandated by federal or state law, such as emergency medical treatment and access to public schools; those specifically available only to legal residents, such as obtaining a drivers license; and other services over which county supervisors have some discretionary power. The new policy denies only benefits in that category to illegal immigrants.
LikeHerndon, Prince William will now send police officers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement training so they can initiate the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of felonies, as required by federal law. That’s not being racist; that is upholding the law of the land to protect us in our homes and neighborhoods.
