Sharp contradictions in two early votes on illegal immigration illustrate that the new Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has not decided how it wants to treat the contentious debate.

Unlike the previous board’s strident opposition to illegal immigrants, the board’s position is “undecided,” said Supervisor Jim Burton, I-Blue Ridge, and will craft its course over a series of decisions in the months to come.

Voters replaced four Republican critics of illegal immigration with four Democratic supervisors in the November elections, reshaping the body into its current makeup of five Democrats, two Republicans and two independents.

Given a chance this week to change course from the old board and pull out of the Culpeper Coalition of local governments against illegal immigration, the board instead voted unanimously to stay in the group.

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But the board had invited talk of a change in direction with a 5-4 vote at its first meeting Jan. 3 to dismiss the previous board's support for harsh state penalties for employers of illegal immigrants.

“People read a lot into that first vote, maybe too much,” Vice Chairwoman Susan Klimek Buckley, D-Sugarland Run, said Wednesday, adding her constituents are concerned about illegal immigration. “It may be too early to see where the board is on this issue.”

Following the series of unanimous votes in support of curbs on illegal immigration last year, Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, R-Sterling, a leading critic of illegal immigration, said the question is whether the board is “backing off.”

“We were taking strides. Now we are taking baby steps,” Delgaudio said. “Clearly, elements of the board don't want to have anything to do with it.”

dgenz@dcexaminer.com