The Loudoun County board unanimously moved toward denying public services to illegal immigrants at Tuesday’s meeting in Leesburg.
Like neighboring Prince William County the week before, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved a measure directing officials to study denying services to those in the country illegally. It also directed the county to study ways to crack down on employers hiring illegal immigrants.
“Giving away free services to people whose very presence is a felony is unfair to people who obey the law,” Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio said. “Illegal immigration is taking a greater and greater toll on this community.”
Delgaudio said that by cutting services and deporting criminal illegal residents, Loudoun County could save up to $20 million. While Loudoun County Chairman Scott York disputed the financial estimate, he said the lack of comprehensive federal immigration reform has forced local governments to act.
“This is a huge problem,” York said, lightly pounding the board table. “Unfortunately local governments are finding themselves taking care of a situation the federal government refuses to deal with.”
Prince William County not only showed the way, Loudoun Board Vice Chairman Bruce Tulloch said, it forced other counties to act immediately or risk becoming magnets for illegal immigrants scared to live in Prince William County.
“It was a wake-up call to other neighboring jurisdictions,” Tulloch said.
Delgaudio announced the resolution Monday afternoon and did not make the measure public until Tuesday morning. Only four people addressed the board about the resolution; more than 100 people addressed supervisors in Prince William County. Jeanne Smoot of the Tahirih Justice Center in Falls Church warned it could cause a “chilling effect” when illegal immigrants are victims of or witnesses to crimes and make it harder to prosecute cases. Supervisor Jim Burton questioned whether the county was acting too fast on too important an issue, but eventually voted in favor of the proposal.
“We should not be rushing through this just because Prince William did it,” Burton said.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said it was a badpolicy because the public was not given enough notice and counties do not have the authority to write their own immigration laws.
“That would be like Loudoun County passing its own Iraq policy because it didn’t like what Congress or the president were doing,” said MALDEF President John Trasvina, who watched the meeting on his computer in California.
