Principi surprises supervisors

By Cheryl Chumley

Published: April 25, 2008

Prince William supervisor Frank Principi's plan to do away with police enforcement of the county's illegal immigration resolution has taken at least three of his fellow board members off guard—not to mention hun-dreds of residents who then reportedly expressed outrage with a slew of e-mails to the chairman's of-fice.

"We have started receiving, virtually every 15 seconds, e-mails [from constituents] mad at Frank for suggest-ing a repeal … and expressing support for the resolution," said Chairman Corey Stewart, R-at large, about 1 p.m. Thursday. "There's hundreds. By the end of the day, I wouldn't be surprised if there's thousands."

Principi, D-Woodbridge, did not return several telephone calls for comment. But various press accounts reported his intent to rescind the part of the resolution that allows local police to inquire about the status of a suspect's residency.

"I was shocked," Stewart said. "He should have given the public more notice about [this] … and he ought to be ashamed, trying to sneak this in the dark of night and not give his residents more notice about repeal-ing what's probably the most important piece of legislation ever."

Supervisor Michael May, R-Occoquan, said he had not received a written resolution or further description of the push to repeal from Principi. But he was surprised by the move, given his understanding of what direction the board had decided to take on immigration policy funding during Tuesday's fiscal 2009 budget markup ses-sion.

"Everyone voted to not fund the cameras," May said, of the unanimous board vote to remove more than $3.1 million that had been allotted in the proposed budget.

But that decision was contingent on a decision announced after a closed session that staff and the attorney would find other options to defray the potential for racial profiling and discrimination lawsuits from immigration policy enforcement. Those findings were supposed to then be presented to board members this coming Tuesday, prior to budget adoption.

May said he still preferred to wait for these staff's findings, and had no comment on the reported aspects of Principi's plan.

Wally Covington, R-Brentsville, is waiting for findings, too—the hard numbers and statistical facts he asked that schools, hospitals and police provide a couple weeks ago.

"I don't think it's responsible we look at anything like that right now," Covington said, about changes in immigration enforcement policy. "We've got citizens' groups coming forward and saying one thing, citizens' groups coming forward and saying another thing … but all we have now is a continuing fight among activists. And they're heartfelt … but we need to get some more hard data."

Covington's directive, offered two meetings, ago suggested summer as a possible time-frame for receiving and reviewing this information.

Supervisors John Stirrup, R-Gainesville; Martin Nohe, R-Coles; Maureen Caddigan, R-Dumfries; and John Jenkins, D-Neabsco, did not return telephone calls for comment.

According to Covington, if Principi proposes the resolution Tuesday, it cannot be voted on until the following Tues-day unless there is a waiver of that rule.

Should Principi's resolution include language that prohibits local officers from requesting immigration status, federal laws might come into play, according to Greg Letiecq, president of Help Save Manassas, and Tom Fitton, the president of a conservative nonprofit group, Judicial Watch, that's advising several communities on the

enforcement of illegal immigration law.

"This is horrible," Letiecq said. "Utterly ridiculous. To restrict the ability of police officers to question the immigration status would be a violation of the 1996 Illegal immigration Reform and Immigrant Re-sponsibility Act."

The measure, signed into Public Law 104-208 in September 1996, states that "local, state, any kind of gov-ernment cannot restrict the ability of an officer to transmit immigration information to [the federal authori-ties]," Letiecq said. "If you prevent the collection of the information, then that is a viola-tion."

The budget vote, as well as fiscal 2009 immigration policy funding, is set for Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the McCoart Building. The meeting is not a public hearing but a citizens' time is included.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907 or .