Effort to combat illegal immigration in Spotsylvania County is under way

Date published: 8/16/2007

By DAN TELVOCK

Spotsylvania supervisors have asked county staff to see if there is any data that might indicate how many illegal immigrants are in the county.

They also want to join a growing number of state localities that are looking at ways to combat the problem.

Supervisor Hap Connors said the supervisors didn't direct staff Tuesday night to conduct a count of illegal immigrants in the county, as has been widely reported.

"But we did suggest if there is readily available data, we'd like to see it," he said. "I do think we need to quantify this somehow. I'd like to know if there is a problem. I am not sure anyone really knows."

On Tuesday, Supervisor Chris Yakabouski asked staff to contact officials in Prince William and Loudoun counties to find out if what they are doing could work in Spotsylvania. Officials in both counties are looking at ways to deny some public services to illegal immigrants. He also asked staff to look into partnering with Culpeper County, which has declared English the county's official language and asked the state for help combating illegal immigration.

"Whatever powers we don't have, we can lobby the [General] Assembly for them," said Yakabouski, who is challenging Sen. Edd Houck , D-Spotsylvania, for the 17th District state Senate seat. "I want to make sure we are not a sanctuary county."

Supervisors unanimously backed Yakabouski.

Connors said the supervisors must be cautious not to discriminate or engage in racial profiling. Enforcing immigration laws is a responsibility the federal government has failed, he said.

Yakabouski said there is an illegal immigrants problem in Spotsylvania. Officials with the regional jail, schools and social services may have some useful statistics, he said.

"Illegal immigration is a drain on our tax dollars," he said. "I think we need to target the illegals regardless of where they come from or what they look like."

There isn't an accurate way to track the number of illegal aliens in the county, but the U.S. Census does track noncitizen immigrants. Nearly 2,700 of Spotsylvania County's 116,000 residents aren't U.S. citizens, according to the 2005 Census. That's 2 percent of the population, compared to about 6 percent statewide and 5 percent in Stafford County. But the number of foreign-born non-citizens in the county has increased dramatically since 2000, up 126 percent. That's a growth rate generally five times the general county population. Statewide, the number of noncitizen residents has increased 23 percent. In Stafford, that segment of the population increased 358 percent between 2000 and 2005, or nearly 14 times the rate of growth of the entire county.

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Date published: 8/16/2007

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