Hispanic businesses bristling at the illegal immigration resolutions that have been spreading across Northern Virginia are attempting to document how the measures could damage their communities.

“We’re going to talk to local officials and ask them where is the cost-benefit analysis,” said Mauricio Viviero, executive director of the new Ayuda Business Council.

Business leaders from across the region filled the main dining room of the Cerro Grande Mexican restaurant in Springfield Mall Tuesday night to learn more about the resolution and discuss their options.

The Prince William County resolution dominated the discussion with its controversial efforts to make it easier to deport illegal immigrants who break the law and study denying services to residents who cannot prove legal status dominated the discussion.

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“What we thought was missing in the debate was an organized effort to have the business owners [oppose the anti-immigration efforts],” Viviero said.

And it’s about time, said Maryland state Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez, a key speaker at the event.

“It was very important for the business sector to finally wake up and have a voice in the decisions that are being made,” she said. “I think there is going to be a real push back from people [to show] the picture they’re trying to paint of our community is not so.”

However, Prince William County supervisors say the resolution has been met with broad support from residents who had been calling for the government to curb illegal immigration and the related issues of overcrowding.

Several supervisors expressed concern that critics were trying to categorize the resolution as anti-Hispanic when it impacts only those who do not have legal status.

“The root issue here is illegal aliens,” said Prince William County Supervisor John Stirrup , the author of the resolution. “They want us to change our policy. Our policy is to affirm the rule of law. We’re not about to do that.”

dgenz@dcexaminer.com