Dan Genz, The Examiner
2007-08-23 07:00:00.0
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Manassas -

The Manassas Park City Council vowed this week to consider new crackdowns on illegal residents while simultaneously issuing a withering critique of an anti-illegal immigrant activist organization.

Council members announced a plan to monitor the new Prince William County immigration resolution that would ultimately deny services to illegal immigrants and have police check the legal status of crime suspects with the goal of deporting those who should not be in the country.

If the Prince William “measures prove legal and effective,” Manassas City would consider adopting them, the council said.

To act now, however, Vice Mayor Bryan Polk wrote in his comments, would be an example of “trial-and-error lawmaking that only serves to breed confusion and discontent.”

“As we wade through feedback and community input that ranges from legitimate concerns and ideas to downright racism, we must fulfill our obligation to be fair,” he said.

Council members said illegal immigration may not be a major problem in the city and that the anti-illegal immigration group Help Save Manassas is wrong in saying the city government has not done enough to confront the issue.

“This group’s false representation of the City’s position serves only to support a vigilante agenda that the city believes is irresponsible and offensive,” the council said in a statement.

The issue was raised Tuesday night in part because Manassas Park’s fast-growing Hispanic population has put the city among 300 counties or independent cities nationwide that are home to more minorities than whites, according to a U.S. Census report issued this month.

That greater diversity is valued, the all-white council said, adding, “The city believes most residents in Manassas Park are legally present and moved to this area to create a better life for their respective families.”

The comments Tuesday only reinforced the board’s reputation for failing to act sooner, said Greg Letiecq, president of Help Save Manassas, adding he strongly objected to accusations of racism.

“It is kind of hard to go and tell a constituent who is living next door to a severely overcrowded house, where there is just constant noise, that the basis of their concern is nothing more than racism,” Letiecq said.

dgenz@dcexaminer.com