As Prince William County cracks down on its illegal immigrant population, some residents in Montgomery County worry their property values and quality of life will take a hit as the undocumented come streaming across the Potomac, invited by the county’s more lenient approach.
“There are a lot of houses on the market in my neighborhood,” Silver Spring resident Hessie Harris said. “I quake in my boots every time a new family moves in.”
Harris said she’s worried illegal immigrants will move in, putting too many people in one house and drive down property values. The number of complaints for overcrowding in county homes has already jumped, going up by more than 20 percent in 2007 from 2006.
Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett has described his approach to immigration as coming from the standpoint of compassion. County police don’t question immigration status and the county funds labor centers where immigrants — legal and illegal — congregate daily looking for jobs.
Since police pressure on illegal immigrants in Prince William has increased in the last several months, culminating Monday with the start of a new policy requiring police to check immigration status during traffic stops, Paul Mendez of Wheaton said he’s watched as impromptu pickup sites have popped up in the parking lots of area strip malls.
“It’s logical that they’d come here,” Mendez said, adding he’s worried crime will start to rise as a result.
But some argue crime and other issues are precisely why police and other government employees shouldn’t question status.
In Mount Rainier, city councilors have proposed an ordinance preventing city workers from questioning status, a policy similar to that already in place in Takoma Park.
The policy, Mount Rainier councilors said, would help illegal immigrants feel comfortable reporting crime.
“We want them to follow the rules and laws of our town, and we want to make sure they know [their status] is not a concern for our municipality,” Councilman Jimmy Tarlau said.
Montgomery County is already in demographic flux, as its share of Maryland’s wealthiest residents drops and lower income groups move in. In 1998, Montgomery County was responsible for 41.3 percent of the state’s income tax returns from people earning more than $200,000; by 2005 that had dropped to 37 percent.
The county’s foreign born population has also spiked, from 18.6 percent in 1990, to 29.4 percent in 2006.
