With the departure of so many people, the local economy suffered. Hair salons, restaurants and corner shops that catered to the immigrants saw business plummet; several closed. Once-boarded-up storefronts downtown were boarded up again.Loudoun county is studying whether to implement such ordinances itself. It appears that the Republican Majority on the Board of Supervisors wants to go out of its way to generate another lawsuit. The various reasons why migration into Loudoun county is not a pressing problem have been discussed at length here, and this story just proves the point that local action on this Federal issue is a remarkably bad idea. At the state level, a Commission on Immigration has been established and is starting work. Since Virginia is a Dillon rule state, it would behoove counties and cities to led the state do its work before taking action on their own.
Meanwhile, the town was hit with two lawsuits challenging the law. Legal bills began to pile up, straining the town’s already tight budget. Suddenly, many people — including some who originally favored the law — started having second thoughts. - The New York Times
The town of Riverside provides a cautionary tale about anti-immigrant ordinances.
Indeed, Riverside, a town of 8,000 nestled across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, has already spent $82,000 defending its ordinance, and it risked having to pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees if it lost in court. The legal battle forced the town to delay road paving projects, the purchase of a dump truck and repairs to town hall, officials said. But while Riverside’s about-face may repair its budget, it may take years to mend the emotional scars that formed when the ordinance “put us on the national map in a bad way,” Mr. Conard said. - The New York TimesThe Board of Supervisors is studying whether to implement statues that will reduce the county's economic base while increasing the county's legal bills.
Who could possibly think that is a good idea?
The Loudoun Board of Supervisors this afternoon is slated to consider an initiative to instruct local law enforcement and other county agencies to actively identify illegal aliens and to deny services when possible. ... While Delgaudio is the loudest cheerleader for the action, Supervisors Mick Staton (R-Sugarland Run), Bruce Tulloch (R-Potomac), Steve Snow (R-Dulles), Jim Clem (R-Leesburg) and Lori Waters (R-Broad Run) are signed on as co-sponsors. Additionally, Republican candidate for sheriff Greg Alhemann spoke to the board this morning to urge passage. - Leesburg TodayUncomfortable as it may be for some members of the Board of Supervisors, the fact remains that new immigrants are engines of economic growth. They open businesses, hire people, and provide services which many people would otherwise be unable to afford. While doing this, they live the values of family and community, they carpool (reducing pollution) more than any other segment of the population, and demonstrate a work ethic Ayn Rand would admire. And in return migrants are misrepresented by opportunistic candidates as a problem in need of a solution, instead of what they are: part of the solution to our many problems.
We need to change the Board of Supervisors in November.
2 comments:
The all-too-predictable response from supporters of these short-sighted proposals will be that they aren't targeting "new immigrants," but rather "illegal migrants."
I don't doubt that this is the intention of most people who are deeply concerned about this issue (notwithstanding a few nutballs who manage to tar the whole group with openly racist comments).
However, what they fail to understand is the huge proportion of families in which some members are documented and others are not. If the objective is, as is often stated, to "convince" the illegal migrants to move elsewhere voluntarily, that means that the legal residents go, too. It is impossible to target those here illegally without also targeting their family members who are here legally.
The reason, I would submit, for the presence of many of these illegal family members is the ridiculous amount of time it takes to sponsor a spouse or child if one is a green card holder. Our immigration system is broken, and it shouldn't take much to figure out that scapegoating the most vulnerable people caught up in its brokenness is not going to produce good results.
Thanks for the good work you're doing here.
I couldn't agree more. I'm glad that the Town Council declined to persecute our migrant community any further at Monday's meeting (more on that when I have details!).
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