MANASSAS (AP) — Ines Olivia Martinez wonders whether her family will be denied medical care. Even her mentally disabled 13-year-old son has been anxiously pointing out police cars amid fears of a local crackdown on illegal aliens.
Resolutions to deny a potentially wide range of public services to illegal aliens have thrust two Northern Virginia counties into the nation’s immigration debate.
While officials in other jurisdictions have focused largely on landlords and employers who knowingly rent to and hire illegal aliens, the Virginia resolutions take a more direct approach. The National Association of Counties says it knows of no other counties that have passed measures aimed at denying services.
Officials in several other Virginia counties have said they plan to follow suit, and the sponsor of the Prince William resolution says he has received e-mails from all over the country praising his efforts.
Together, the counties account for 8 percent of Virginia’s population, with more than 600,000 residents.
According to census estimates released this month, Prince William’s Hispanic population has more than doubled since 2000, to nearly 70,000 last year. Non-Hispanic whites account for a little more than half of the population, down from about two-thirds in 2000. In Loudoun, the share of minorities increased from 20 percent to 32 percent.
Proponents blame illegal aliens for changing the character of the region, and accuse them of packing too many people into single-family homes and failing to learn English.
“It’s reached a boiling point — or a boil-over point,” said Supervisor John T. Stirrup, a Republican who sponsored the Prince William measure.
For Mrs. Martinez — who has lived in Manassas, in Prince William County, for two years — the resentment against illegal aliens came as a surprise.
“It broke my heart,” the 41-year-old Mexico City native said of the measure. “We were all thinking there would be an amnesty” declared by the federal government.
In Loudoun and Prince William, officials are studying which public services can be withheld legally and how such restrictions could be implemented.
The resolutions say emergency medical care will not be denied, and federal restrictions already control many other services. For instance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that children can’t be kept out of school on the basis of immigration status, while food stamps are off-limits to illegal aliens.
The status of other services, such as health care for the uninsured, libraries and parks, are less clear-cut.
The resolution includes a provision instructing police to investigate the immigration status of anyone they detain if there is probable cause to think the person is in the country illegally.
Mrs. Martinez said some of her friends and relatives have moved out of Prince William County because of the measure. Others are gearing up for a fight.
Hispanic activists are planning a weeklong boycott of all non-immigrant, non-Hispanic businesses in Prince William County beginning tomorrow and a one-day general labor strike in October.
“We came to better ourselves as human beings because we also want a better life for our children,” said Rocio Martinez-Lopez, 35, Mrs. Martinez’s sister. “People say, ’We’re going to another state.’ I tell them, ’No, we have to fight.’ ”
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