Stewart's crackdown in Virginia

The young Republican was elected chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in November 2006 to fill out the unexpired term of Sean Connaughton, who had been appointed U.S. maritime administrator. The following summer, he began cracking down on the county’s growing illegal-immigrant population, which many residents said was spiraling out of control and driving down the region’s quality of life.

Stewart, 40, unapologetically championed a policy that would direct police to check residents’ immigration status and restrict services to illegal immigrants.

When opponents charged that his efforts brought turmoil to the county, Stewart said “tumultuous can be a good thing.”

“Looking back on this whole thing, my whole mental makeup was built for this,” Stewart says. “I tend to be a bulldog, and the more that I heard the protest by outside groups and the media, the more I was determined to get the job done.”

His much-publicized crackdown catapulted Stewart to national prominence and made him a divisive figure who, in his words, is both “detested” and “admired.”

“Where some people may have had no opinion of me, or little opinion of me, before, they certainly have an opinion now, whether it’s good or bad,” Stewart says.

Many politicians and experts see a complex problem without clear-cut solutions, but Stewart considers illegal immigration an issue of right vs. wrong, legal vs. illegal, action vs. negligence.

“If you support cracking down on illegal immigrants, you like what we’re doing,” Stewart says. “If you think we should turn a blind eye toward illegal immigration, you’re going to hate what the county has done.”

Prince William’s original mandate was so far-reaching that it asked the directors of the county’s roads and technology departments whether it was possible to keep illegal immigrants off the streets and away from the county Web site.

The county scaled back the measure, first on July 10, 2007, then on Oct. 16, the day the board approved the law that directed police officers to check the residency status of all crime suspects when the officers had probable cause to believe they were in the country illegally. It was tightened again on April 29, 2008, when the county supervisors voted to require police officers to check the status of everyone arrested.

After a year as chairman, Stewart won a full, four-year term last November. He says the election was a referendum on the contentious issue.

Stewart has twice testified before Congress, demanding a tougher agenda and more authority for local governments to enforce federal immigration laws.

“If you’re not going to enforce it at the federal level, we ask that you give us the tools at the local level, and we will,” Stewart told a congressional subcommittee in September.

“I’ve always had him spotted as somebody who has a lot of talent, someone who has conviction, and someone who is committed to enforcing the law,” says Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who is known nationally for his anti-illegal immigration positions and who stumped for Stewart last fall.

Stewart has made no secret of his larger ambitions, announcing a campaign for lieutenant governor in February, only to scuttle it a month later when incumbent Republican Bill Bolling chose to run for re-election instead of starting a bid for governor.

Stewart’s rise has been rapid, especially considering that he came to the state only 10 years ago from Minnesota.

He moved to Prince William County from neighboring Fairfax County in 2001 when his wife, Maria, was pregnant with their second son and the family wanted a yard.

Stewart ran for the county board just two years later, winning a seat as Occoquan district supervisor.

After he took over as chairman, he oversaw a moratorium on new housing developments, an effort to cut the county budget, and then the illegal immigration crackdown.

Under the federal-county program, Prince William turned over 747 of the 867 illegal immigrants it detained to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the fiscal year that ended June 30. By comparison, Fairfax County turned in 399 from January through June, while Montgomery County turned over 188 so far this year. Both of these counties have more than twice as many residents as Prince William.

Critics say Stewart has used illegal immigration to serve his political ambitions.

“He is a politician who is trying to make a name for himself on the issue of fear … they were going after the Latino community,” says Nancy Lyall, a coordinator for the immigrant group Mexicans Without Borders.

“At best, what Corey Stewart has done is to drive Latinos out of the county, documented or undocumented, because people feel unwanted, that this is not a good place to live,” says Cesar Perales, the president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. He compares Stewart with Hazleton, Pa., Mayor Lou Barletta, who is running for Congress after making a name as a hard-liner on illegal immigration.

But supporters say Stewart is showing that local governments can do something about the issue.

“What Prince William County is doing is clearly registering at the national level,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank promoting restrictions on illegal immigration. “You need to have somebody driving the bus, you need to have somebody leading on this issue, and that’s the role he’s playing. You have to have a catalyst.”

Amber Peebles, owner of Athena Remodelers in Dumfries, says business picked up after competing contractors who had relied on illegal immigrant labor moved out.

“I think it was a politically courageous move on the part of Corey Stewart,” she says.

But the board’s most vociferous critic of the crackdown, Supervisor Frank Principi, D-Woodbridge, says the county must scale back to reclaim its image as a place that’s open and welcoming.

The fact that immigrants in the region call Prince William County “Condado del Diablo,” the Devil’s County, is appalling, Principi says.

While Stewart says he has no regrets about his tough line against illegals, he worries that it might be making legal immigrants feel unwelcome, too. He says he will begin pushing for measures that make it easier for immigrants to come to the United States without breaking the law.

Stewart says he is confident his crusade against illegal immigration has made him a better public official.

“I’m hard-charging. I don’t give ground. Once I set a course, I don’t fall back and I move ahead. You can call that bullying, but I call it effective leadership,” Stewart says.

“I know when I entered this fray I was crossing the Rubicon and there was no turning back,” he says. “I knew I was going to be demonized. I knew I was going to be criticized, and I knew that this would be the issue I would be judged by.”