Loudoun County takes center stage in the high-profile debate over banning services to illegal immigrants today when the County Board of Supervisors hears the first report on its July resolution.

Supervisors hoping to save as much as $20 million by banning some services to illegal immigrants passed a resolution asking the county staff to study the issue in July.

The first report to the board offers an assortment of only 16 government services that county staff believes the board has the authority to restrict to legal residents, including the animal shelter, homeless shelter, programs for young parents and the landfill.

But limiting access to the services would result in such hassles as longer lines, more stray animals, homeless residents not willing to seek help and more illegally dumped trash in streets and neighborhoods, the county staff reported.

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The more county officials studied the issue and varying state and federal regulations, the more complicated they became, County Executive Kirby Bowers said Friday.

The board is not expected to vote on denying services today, Bowers said, but is expected to give the staff more direction on how to implement the resolution’s goals.

Among the questions under review is whether county staff will accept a Virginia driver’s license or state identification card as the only documents to prove legal residency, or whether county staff will also accept other measures of identification.

Although the Prince William County Board of Supervisors approved a similar resolution a week earlier in July, its leaders may be looking to Loudoun County for the available options and potential hurdles associated with trying to deny services.

“We don’t have a monopoly on good ideas and how to crack down on illegal immigrants,” Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart said. “If some other community comes up with a legally tenable way to crack down on illegal immigration and it’s something we haven’t already done, we’ll do it.”

dgenz@dcexaminer.com