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County evaluates immigration crackdown
It's no secret that Prince William's crackdown on illegal immigration was a contentious and controversial decision. When the Board of County Supervisors began considering the issue in 2007, thousands of Latinos took to the streets, protesting and boycotting. They were met by crackdown supporters who held rallies of their own, and even by Ku Klux Klan members, who left fliers in several neighborhoods.Two years after the crackdown was first ordered, an independent evaluation has concluded that the policy is “a reasonable way of targeting serious offenders who are illegal immigrants” but that it has damaged the county's reputation.
On Tuesday, Thomas Guterbock, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Survey Research, told supervisors that several thousand illegal immigrants left when the crackdown was enacted.
The economy and housing market crash had a lot to do with that exodus, but still, he said, “We are not deterred from saying that the policy contributed to this change.”
In addition, he said, the majority of residents surveyed said they were satisfied with the policy and the police implementation.
But as expected, there was “considerably lower” satisfaction among Latinos, Guterbock said, adding that the data contains “disturbing” figures about the perceptions that Latinos and blacks now have about Prince William County.
The crackdown policy requires police to check the immigration status of criminal suspects when officers have reason to believe that they may be here illegally. That policy was a compromise between the previous policy of not checking immigration status at all, and a tougher proposal to check the immigration status of every person charged with every crime, including traffic violations.
Between March and December 2008, illegal immigrants made up between 3 and 5 percent of those arrested for crimes, he said. Seventy-six percent of the illegal immigrant arrests were for public drunkenness, driving without a license and driving under the influence.
Guterbock said it was difficult to assess the outcome of the crackdown because each person researchers talked to said the policy had a different goal, such as saving money, encouraging illegal immigrants to leave, improving public safety or reducing overcrowding.
Some of those goals appear to have been realized, he said. In addition to the exodus of illegal immigrants, police have also seen a decrease in the number of reports of public disorder. The number of calls for disorder crimes (such as public drunkenness) declined significantly after the policy was implemented.
In addition, county records show a “dramatic” 38-percent decrease in complaints about overcrowding. However that's been countered by a substantial increase in complaints about neglected vacant properties that seems to be related to the departure of immigrants.
But the policy has had some more serious negative consequences. Most notably, Guterbock said, it has “created a division in this county that had not been there before.”
“Hispanic perceptions of Prince William County as a whole became negative,” he said, noting that until 2006, Latinos were more likely than other ethnic groups to say they want to continue to live in Prince William County. That number has dropped by half, to about 40 percent, he said.
More ominously, that rising dissatisfaction has been seen among African-Americans as well and covers feelings about the county government, Police Department and quality of life in Prince William as a whole.
Police Chief Charlie Deane, who was commended by Guterbock for the way his department has implemented the policy, said those satisfaction ratings are troubling.
“One of the things that concerns me most is the dramatic decline in those ratings,” he said.
However, he said, his major worry that Latinos would stop reporting crime and cooperating with police appears to have been unfounded. While Latinos are still disproportionately victims, the survey indicates that they have not stopped reporting crime to police, he said.
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