Commentary - Is the welcome mat really welcome?

Washington DC (Map, News) - Immigration seems as if it's the consummate federal political issue. After all, securing a country's borders and determining who may (and may not) enter are responsibilities for the federal government.

But even the best national policies won't work if local governments undermine them. And for years, some governments have been doing all they could to thwart federal immigration policy.

In Los Angeles, Special Order 40 prevents police from enforcing immigration law. Cities including New York, Chicago, San Diego, Austin and Houston have, at various times, passed laws making them "sanctuary cities," where city employees are banned from working with federal immigration authorities. Illinois even passed a law prohibiting employers from using a federal database to screen out illegal immigrants.

These days, though, the tide seems to be turning against illegal immigration. Not because of federal action -- the Senate's most recent attempt to deal with it would actually have made the problem worse by granting amnesty to millions of illegals. That bill, rightly, died in its tracks.

No, the battle against illegal immigration is being won at the state and local level, where governments are finally taking action. For example, last summer Prince William County passed a measure ordering officers to check the immigration status of anyone in police custody that they think may be here illegally.

Before the law even took effect it was working; illegal immigrants have been pouring out of the county. Earlier this month The Washington Post reported that, "At the Freetown Market, a convenience store in a heavily Latino section of Woodbridge that offers U-Haul trucks for hire, one-way rentals have jumped from between 10 and 20 a month just before July to about 40 a month today."

Where are they going? "States such as North Carolina or neighboring counties such as Prince George's or Arlington that they perceive as less hostile," the paper reported. And, maybe, to Fairfax, if one local political candidate has his way.

"I can just tell you Fairfax County is not going to go the route of some of our neighbors," Gerry Connolly, the chairman of the county's Board of Supervisors told the Post. "We're not going to demagogue. We're not going to essentially roll back the welcome mat," he added. "That's not why I ran for office and that isn't who we are, and we're not going to do that."

Now, Connolly ought to be a shoo-in for re-election. He's a Democrat in a county that's trending in that direction (Jim Webb swamped George Allen by 64,000 votes last year, and John Kerry beat George Bush by 33,000 votes in 2004).

And under his leadership Fairfax eliminated the hated property tax on cars, making county residents the only people in the state who don't have to pay that regressive levy. Yet Connolly's running in the wrong direction on illegal immigration.

His challenger Gary Baise says on his Web site that he'll deal with illegal immigration by "enforcing the law when it comes to overcrowding and illegal boarding houses," "will initiate public nuisance lawsuits when appropriate," and won't "fund work centers for illegal immigrants." Those seem like reasonable steps, especially since it seems extremely unlikely that Fairfax residents want to roll out a "welcome mat" for people in ongoing violation of our laws.

Perhaps Connolly has done some internal polling that shows otherwise, or perhaps he's just speaking from the heart. But don't be surprised if Tuesday's election results in an upset victory for Baise, and a reminder that -- as Tip O'Neill said -- all politics is local.

Rich Tucker is senior writer at The Heritage Foundation.

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