Prince William County’s landmark proposal to crack down on illegal immigration crashed into an unexpected roadblock Tuesday, when projections of an enormous multimillion-dollar budget shortfall caused the board to delay funding the effort. The resolution — which would have given officers the authority to check the status of suspected illegal immigrants arrested for any crime, including traffic violations — will be debated again on Oct. 16 after a retreat where the supervisors will be given details on next year’s financial picture.
“The citizens need to know there is a shortage in the revenue stream and there is some cost to this,” Supervisor Maureen Caddigan said.
While all eight supervisors supported the resolution July 10, several raised concerns about the program’s cost at a time when the county faces a dramatic drop in revenue due to falling property tax revenue.
Supervisors voted unanimously to support broadly increasing police enforcement while at the same time postponing a vote funding the plan.
Chairman Corey Stewart, who has trumpeted the planned crackdown for the last three months, claimed the vote allowed the police to begin training officers for implementing the policy. However, the county staff will likely wait for the funding to be approved before implementing the plan.
“You’re going to get some very negative financial news at your budget retreat,” County Executive Craig Gerhart said.
Critics of the resolution, who made up most of the crowd of more than 350 people, cheered the delay with chants of “Yes we can” in Spanish. They hailed the delay as a chance to defeat a plan that would result in denying some county services to illegal immigrants and lead to more deportations.
Supervisors are considering spending $14 million to add 21 more people to the police department over the next five years. Other options under consideration would push the cost to $20 million.
“We know we want to do something, but we’ve got to look at the overall picture, the big picture,” Supervisor Hilda Barg said. “I think it would be very prudent to wait until after we’ve had this financial retreat to make this decision.”
