Republican lawmakers say Democrats’ winning control of the state Senate next month would be a major setback to their efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in Virginia.
“You can [kiss] every illegal immigration state reform bill goodbye,” said Delegate David B. Albo, Fairfax County Republican. “Every Republican we lose is one less vote we have for immigration reform.”
Virginia has been at the forefront of trying to protect its residents and their tax money from people entering the country illegally.
In 2003, the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed legislation denying driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Two years later, the state barred localities from giving illegal aliens non-emergency public benefits.
Republican lawmakers think further efforts will be decided largely by the party that controls the Senate’s Courts of Justice Committee, usually the first and last stop for bills dealing with illegal aliens.
All 140 seats in the Assembly are open in the Nov. 6 election. Democrats need four more seats to win control of the Senate.
When the newly elected lawmakers convene in Richmond in January, the 15-member justice committee is expected to take as many as 17 recommendations from the Virginia Crime Commission, including denying bail to illegal aliens and giving new financial incentives to localities that add jail space to accommodate illegals awaiting deportation.
Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, Virginia Beach Republican and chairman of the justice committee, said Virginia voters would see an “enormous” difference should Democrats take control.
He said Henry L. Marsh III, the Richmond Democrat who would be in line to become chairman, has introduced bills every year calling for a moratorium on the death penalty and against abolition of parole. Mr. Marsh could not be reached for comment.
Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, a Fairfax County Republican targeted by Democrats, said sending an immigration bill to a Democrat-controlled justice committee would be like sending it to the “morgue.”
“Everybody who wants the political cover of beating their chest, saying they want to fight illegal immigration, will drop all [the legislative proposals] in the committee and know they are not going anywhere,” said Mr. Cuccinelli, who also sits on the committee.
No official statistics are available on the number of illegal aliens in Virginia or the U.S. However, many Republicans say there are about 300,000 in the state.
Northern Virginia has struggled with the immigration issue. Prince William, Loudon and Staunton counties have enacted or are considering tougher regulations.
The percentage of foreign-born people in Prince William County nearly doubled from 2000 to 2006, according to the U.S. census.
In 2000, 11.5 percent of the county’s population was foreign-born, compared with 21.9 percent in 2006. The number of immigrants in the county who are not U.S. citizens increased from 58.4 percent in 2000 to 63.9 percent in 2006.
Sen. Richard L. Saslaw of Fairfax County, who likely would become Senate majority leader under Democrat control, said the idea that his party would allow Virginia to backslide on illegal alien issues is “nothing more than grandstanding.”
He says whoever runs the committee will realize that the state has little leeway when it comes to combating illegal immigration.
“First off, half the stuff proposed is unconstitutional,” Mr. Saslaw said. “A quarter of the other stuff proposed is federal pre-emption, and the remaining quarter is already on the books.”
Mr. Stolle agreed that many proposals died in previous years because they were flawed but said this year that the crime commission has solid recommendations that will make it difficult for lawmakers to ignore the illegal-aliens issue next year.
“I think what’s happened is the Republicans are embracing the recommendations of the commission and the Democrats have not,” he said. “But individually, when I talk to them, they say they would be hard-pressed to opposed the recommendations.”
With less than three weeks before the election, both parties are pumping money into glossy mailings and radio and television ads dedicated to immigration.
In Fairfax County, Republican Sen. Jay O’Brien vows in television ads to “get tough” on illegal immigration and attacks George Barker, his Democratic opponent in the 39th District, for saying the issue belongs to the federal government, not the state.
In the 27th District Senate race, Democrat Karen Schultz uses a radio spot to cast her opponent for the open seat, Jill Holtzman Vogel, as a hypocrite. She asks how Mrs. Vogel, a Republican, can take hard-line stances when her husband’s law firm has lobbied for the American Immigrant Lawyers Association, a group that backs a path to citizenship for some illegal aliens.
The Vogel campaign has responded by airing a radio ad featuring Frederick County Sheriff Robert T. Williamson.
“Folks, it’s just not true,” Sheriff Williamson says in the spot. “The claim that Jill supports illegals and her husband works for them? Well that’s just flat-out wrong and has proven to be false.”
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