Fairfax County staff has missed two promised deadlines to provide a report on how many illegal immigrants live in the county and what programs the government can and cannot legally deny them, Sully District Supervisor Michael Frey said.
Frey, a Republican, asked for the information in the summer and said he plans to push for answers if it isn’t given to him by Monday.
“I think what we’re looking for is [whether] there [is] some large number of people out there availing themselves of county-funded services that are costing us a lot of money,” Frey said Wednesday. “I don’t think there is, but I think we need to ask the question, and the question needs to be answered: What are we doing?”
He said county staff first promised it would have the report finished before Labor Day, and then by late October.
County Executive Anthony Griffin didn’t order his staff to retrieve the data until Oct. 1, according to a memo.
Frey suggested the delay stems from results the county is reluctant to make public.
“Are we in fact asking for documentation for all the federal and state programs where we’re required to? I would guess, if the answer was yes, they would have told me that a long time ago,” he said.
Fairfax County spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald declined to comment on Frey’s criticism but said the report continues “to be worked on with due diligence being given so that the information is both accurate and complete.”
“When it is ready, it will appropriately go to the Board of Supervisors,” she said.
The issue is a particularly sensitive one in Fairfax, where illegal immigration emerged late in the election as a political flashpoint.
Rafts of criticisms over the perceived inaction of the board and its chairman came from Republicans both inside and outside the county. Those critics included Gary Baise, who was handily defeated last week by Democrat Gerry Connolly in the race for Fairfax chairman, and Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart, who won re-election in his own county.
