An upcoming state review of Prince William County’s illegal-immigrant crackdown is generating heat well before it begins, with County Chairman Corey Stewart’s charge that its leader should be disqualified over accusations she once hired an illegal immigrant.
Linda Chavez, whose nomination to serve in President Bush’s Cabinet in 2001 failed when reports surfaced she had employed an illegal immigrant, now chairs the Virginia State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
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The panel will meet at the county headquarters in Woodbridge Dec. 14 to review claims that the county’s policy amounts to discrimination against minority residents.
While Stewart said he respected the commission, he strongly objected to Chavez’s role, saying the nomination debacle means, “She is the worst person to be heading this. … She has absolutely no credibility on this issue.”
Stewart’s comments are “absolutely outrageous,” Chavez said, countering that she has 20 years of experience dealing with the immigration issue and is now writing her second book on the topic. The illegal Guatemalan woman living at her home in the 1990s was not an employee, Chavez said, but a woman fleeing an abusive spouse. The woman occasionally did chores and received money for English classes and money to return home, Chavez said.
The Virginia Advisory Committee will hear from elected officials, business leaders and community members to learn more about the county’s policy, Chavez said.
Stewart and other county leaders have repeatedly said the plan expanding immigration law-enforcement checks to local police officers can only be successful if there is no discrimination and that officials will take necessary steps to implement it fairly.
But widespread concerns about the plan’s enforcement have made it a national news story and an important case of immigration reforms, Chavez said.
“Obviously we didn’t just throw a dart at a board and pick Prince William from nowhere,” she said.
