Writer happy about the resolution nullification
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Victor M. Glasberg
Published: May 2, 2008
Happily, the Prince William Supervisors have nullified their recent mandate that county police check the immigration status of anyone suspected of being unlawfully in the country. The response to this shift on the part of Chairman Corey Stewart bears reflection. Mr. Stewart and his allies on the board proclaim that “the basic policy is fundamentally the same” (Supervisor Martin Nohe). Nothing could be further from the truth, however.
Under the now nullified policy, as implemented by Prince William Police Department General Order 45.01 (effective March 1), an officer could “inquire into immigration status prior to the establishment of probable cause,” based merely on “articulable suspicion” that a suspect was undocumented. We know what that means.
As the county’s happily independent Human Right Commission pointed out to its everlasting credit, this protocol invited pretextual stops leading to the identification and arrest of undocumented Juan
Does on immigration charges alone.
Little wonder that thousands of Latinos have left the county, choosing not to be subjected to such abuse regardless of their immigration status.
Now, immigration status can be demanded only following an actual arrest, which requires probable cause to believe that an actual crime, unrelated to immigration status, has been committed. As a civil rights lawyer, I am perfectly aware that pretextual arrests can replace pretextual stops.
Still, the stakes for the arresting officer are much higher, and the number of arrests is certain to decline.
The board’s belated rescission of its ill-advised policy comes only after a substantial ethnic cleansing of Prince William County that Chairman Stewart’s policies championed.
The cost of these policies is yet to be made clear (it is being studied by a university consortium), but a heavy price has already been paid, both by those who left the county in fear, and by those who live there now and are thus identified, alas, with public xenophobia throughout the nation.
VICTOR M. GLASBERG
Alexandria
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on May 05, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Godsave, in fairness to Corey, I don’t believe there is a practical way to “count illegals” and his office stated if they made a “guesstimate” of the number, it would just serve as political fodder for those slicing and dicing the numbers. That’s a fair statement. zcx states an estimate of 30,000 to 50,000 illegals in PWC and that’s as good a starting number as any. I actually supported Bush’s plan as it was reasonable and compromised on existing illegals here. The strong right shut it down so once again we’re left with no plan at all. Somewhere along the line this country is going to have to merge towards the center to get something done. I stand by what I wrote earlier: The Resolution supporters keep saying it’s working as the immigrant population goes down. I keep saying this ain’t the Resolution but the economy chasing people out. One of us is right, the other will be surprised!
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Posted by ( Godsaveus ) on May 05, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Raywilliams Again with his cheap cheat chat, President Bush and Senator McCain support the immigration reform in 2007 against the conservative base inside the party yes, President Bush is on your side. I agree with you in one thing ,we need to know how many illegal are in our county , the BOS should start with a census in the county schools and local hospitals and then move on to the houses.
Brilliant !!!!!!!
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Posted by ( mmarin ) on May 05, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Good article sir. It’s unfortunate that many in my own county would rather sling insults than to work the issue.
So many people have stressed that illegal aliens are being targetted but the RoL resolution was so blatently illegal that as an American it was sickening to know that people voted for it and Americans supported it.
It’s an afront to every American that we would give up our civil liberties as citizens to try and ‘feel’ safer by having our police force round up a certain demographic.
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Posted by ( barnun ) on May 05, 2008 at 9:03 am
Victor, fortunately for you and the other applogists, the MS-13 gang members could not be checked for status until after they murdered someone.
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Posted by ( cobra ) on May 03, 2008 at 9:11 pm
We in PW County don’t give a damn what citizens of Alexandria have to say about this resolution. We are estatic that they are now moving to Fairfax and other jurisdictions. Hope Victor is ready for the tax increase that is sure to follow with the addition of over 600 new ESL students that are now in your jurisdiction. Nice try Victor with your little Xenophobia comment. In Victors twisted world, those that break the law and steal from the American Citizens are considered noble while those that fight for our laws to be upheld are Xenophobes. The Hispanic community has no one to blame but themselves. And oh yeah Victor, PW County is the new Bosnia with ethnic cleansing. Do you know how silly you that sounds. Take care of your own community there in Alexandria and butt out of our business.
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Posted by ( PWCMom ) on May 03, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Wow-and here’s yet another one who doesn’t get it. Scary that he is even a lawyer!
I would haev more sympathy for his position if I saw people of his profession stop trying to misuse the facts to their own liking, and step up and offer to help their clients and constituents, free or reduced charge, to GET legal. How about that one, Mr, Glasberg?
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Posted by ( Sam B ) on May 03, 2008 at 10:51 am
Regardless of civil rights issues, I would assume (although any police officer is welcome to correct me if I am wrong), that this immigration status check would extend the time that an officer is out of service (unable to respond to calls) during a stop. It would be a disservice to the community to increase response times to far more serious issues such as assault, domestic violence or drunk driving because officers have to spend more time out of service with a loiterer who happens to be Hispanic. Making an arrest is going to have an officer out of service for an extended period anyway, so restricting immigration checks to actual arrests (or better yet, just having them done in the county jail where time is even less of a pressing issue) should mitigate the out-of-service time issue.
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Posted by ( raywilliams ) on May 03, 2008 at 7:18 am
The supporters of the Resolution most likely have the “Mission Accomplished” banner left over from President Bush’s visit to the USS Lincoln. And like President Bush’s premature proclamation of 5 years ago, there may be a lull of immigrants in PWC but in no way has the battle been won. Like Iraq, we’ll spend millions of dollars on a plan that cannot achieve the goal and unless the borders are secured, we’ll be on John McCain’s 100 year plan for both Iraq and PWC illegal cleansing. Corey Stewart’s office admitted they have no idea of how many illegals live in PWC, therefore have no idea of the cost to remove them or the potential cost savings once they’re gone. Sounds like a typical pork-barrel government project to me. Corey will run along until the money runs out, and then we’ll be back to where we were - still without a plan in place to deal with reality, not the dreams of the few vocal supporters.
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Posted by ( do the right thing ) on May 03, 2008 at 5:12 am
Mr.Glasberg,
It is evident by your comments that you don’t know what the hell you are talking about. Another misguided, misinformed, non-resident of Prince William County. I would be worrying about what Congressman Moran is doing to your city.
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