The Melting Pot Boils Over

Washington Post ^ | July 19, 2007 | Marc Fisher

[3AngelaD]

Nine years ago, John Stirrup says, he and his wife, Heidi, decided to move out of South Arlington because "our neighborhood was changing pretty drastically. There was a big gang presence, and it was beginning to get dangerous."

"The final straw for me was when we found gang markings spray-painted on the trees," he recalls. But he wasn't about to walk away without taking a stand: At least twice, he caught the kids who were tagging trees, and he chastised them. They cursed him out and went about their business.

The Stirrups moved to Prince William County -- to Haymarket, to the promise of open spaces, good schools and a community that shares their values. If John Stirrup's name sounds familiar, that's because he has been a county supervisor since 2004. He proposed a measure to take action against illegal immigrants, and the county board passed a scaled-down version of it last week. The resolution that supervisors approved empowers police to check into the immigration status of anyone who is arrested and directs county agencies to determine which services they can deny to illegal immigrants.

What compelled Stirrup to act was the sense that his new home is changing in ways disturbingly close to what he experienced in Arlington. "Not in my neighborhood," he says, "but when I visit the 7-Eleven, it's the same feel as we had in Arlington" -- a sense of being a stranger in his own community....

[3AngelaD]

Marc Fisher is a squish head but at least he tried to present Stirrup's side of things. As far as I am concerned, Stirrip is a hero.

[Mr. Mojo]

Federal authorities say they have the capacity to deport only 40 illegal immigrants a month from Prince William

40 a month? I suspect more than 40 are being born to those illegals (in that county) every day.

[ClearCase_guy]

Federal authorities say they have the capacity to deport only 40 illegal immigrants a month from Prince William, but Stirrup says pressure from the county can push that number higher.

Unbelievable.

I seriously think the police should be empowered to seize assets of illegal aliens. Houses, cars, electronics. Grab the stuff, sell the stuff, buy a Greyhound ticket for the previous owner.

Give the police a financial incentive to grab illegal aliens, and we will find the capacity to deport more than 40 a month.

[Mr. Mojo]

"Everything needed to close the cultural divide," he says, "is likely already on the books: occupancy limits, automobiles on a property or grass, loud music, etc.

Ah yes, those duly ignored "laws already on the books." Too much to ask that they be enforced? Evidently.

[ckilmer]

Mark Fisher is another bimbo who associates old world legal migration with new world illegal migration.

Press three for Russian? Yiddish? Polish? German? Italian?

Not gonna happen GI.

The stupid stuff has gone too far.

[Flintlock]

Iffen the “Illegals” don’t cooperate with law enforcement, make THAT non-cooperation become a one-way ticket home. I bet there would be no further problems on that score.

[unixfox]

Give the police a financial incentive to grab illegal aliens, and we will find the capacity to deport more than 40 a month.

I agree. Show em the money and we could get rid of millions of illegals in about 10 days.

They have no problem stopping someone for driving 1 mile over the speed limit, no seat belt, jay walking ,etc,etc,etc, but they WON'T do anything to the ILLEGALS because there is no incentive.

[Andy'smom]

Enforce the zoning laws, traffic laws, loitering laws. Make it a hassle for them to live in these communities.

[BenLurkin]

"Lawlessness was a good word, because it really describes what people are enduring here," he says. "They wake up in the morning, and the house across the street has nine or 15 people living there instead of four. There are unregistered vehicles in the driveway and trash in the yard. We've seen a significant increase in rats. These individuals get in their cars, without license or insurance, and drive on our roads to get to jobs where they are paid off the books and under the prevailing wage, without benefits. On the weekends, there's extensive consumption of alcohol, loud music, and the comments women have told me about from the men are really unbelievable.

"These are not elements of a civil society."

[3AngelaD]

Turning nice American communities into Third World outposts. When did the people of Northern Virginia vote to have their communities overrun by foreign peasants?

[AmericanInTokyo]

This is the America that George W. Bush REFUSES to see and is so frikkin blind to, and does not have a clue.

He is SO out of touch, that this is happening to his America, all across the land. Just like the Old Man's stunning visit to a supermarket years ago seeing technology that to all of us, was a no-brainer. That Bush Family is so out of the loop.

For him--and his toadies all lining up cushy jobs after January 2009, it is just one big tortilla and frijoles gravy train to any and all: "come on in everyone, yes, bienveniedos, you do the work my lazy fellow Americans won't do."

[rabscuttle385]

We didn’t. They kinda just moved here, and the police and the local politicians did nothing.

[rabscuttle385]

Loudoun County supervisors moved this week to follow Prince William's lead, but other communities say that such an approach isn't necessary.

Great! My family moved to Leesburg last year when he got a job in Leesburg.

We lived in Lake Ridge, in Prince William, for 13 years. Once a wonderful community with good schools and little or no traffic became a nightmare. The local hospital was clogged with illegals looking for (and receiving) effectively free health care, traffic is terrible...the list goes on.

In the months before we left, my dad was threatened by two young black men who refused to move their car from in front of our house, prostitutes were servicing clients in our cul-de-sac, and only God knows how many illegals lived two doors down from us. Beer bottles on the lawn, work trucks with license plates from a multitude of states, and men sitting out on the front lawn at all times of day, watching everything and eyeing neighborhood girls, including my sister.

I can't even imagine South Arlington...but it's pretty much a "ghetto" according to folks I know.

Portions of Northern Virginia have become hell holes. But, of course, you won't see illegals living in Great Falls, McLean, and Langley, where the Washington elite and their families live.

[LanPB01]

The financial incentive has certainly worked well for the war on drugs. If that kind of effort was put into stopping illegals, we’d be a lot better off.

[Wallace T.]

I would guess that Mark Fisher’s grandparents insisted that their children speak English rather than the language they used while in Russia. By his account, his immigrant grandmother became a flag waving U.S. citizen. However, the vast majority of the illegals have no similar desire to Americanize but rather to recreate the cultural and social conventions of Latin America on our soil.

[Graybeard58]

the new policy will poison relations between police and immigrants who are victims of or witnesses to crimes.

the new policy will poison relations between police and criminal immigrants who are victims of or witnesses to crimes.

When a criminal is a victim of another criminal it is hard for me to work up any sympathy.

[VeniVidiVici]

Stirrup says this time is different. "In previous waves of immigration, you had a vast majority of the immigrants who wanted to assimilate and embrace the American dream," he says. "These individuals have no desire to embrace American culture. Their motivation is a purely economic one -- to make money and ship it home."

Why is this so difficult for Democrats and pro-illegal Republicans (Mel Martinez) to grasp? THEY DON'T WANT CITIZENSHIP OR TO ASSIMILATE!!!!

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

“”Lawlessness was a good word, because it really describes what people are enduring here,” he says. “They wake up in the morning, and the house across the street has nine or 15 people living there instead of four. There are unregistered vehicles in the driveway and trash in the yard. We’ve seen a significant increase in rats. These individuals get in their cars, without license or insurance, and drive on our roads to get to jobs where they are paid off the books and under the prevailing wage, without benefits. On the weekends, there’s extensive consumption of alcohol, loud music, and the comments women have told me about from the men are really unbelievable.”

I lived in Prince William County from 91-96 and commuted to the Pentagon. I started hearing these stories about Arlington back then. I thought Arlington had passed an ordinance that limited the number of person that could live in a house, etc.

Unless we start protecting our borders, this problem will be EVERYWHERE in our country. I now live in South Georgia and my county already is about 8% populated by illegals. There are counties in Georgia where the % is 33%. It is NOT getting better.

[wbill]

When did the people of Northern Virginia vote to have their communities overrun by foreign peasants?

When they elected the current crop of pols that refuses to enforce the law.

I like this guy. If enforcement of the laws against illegals is going to take place, it looks like it will need to happen at a local level.

[Popocatapetl]

The best and funniest solution to spray pain vandals I saw was a businessman whose building had a wall next to his parking lot that was just irresistible to taggers.

He lost patience after paying repeatedly to have the wall repainted, so he came up with a novel solution: high pressure paint spray nozzles in the wall at intervals.

When the tagger approaches the wall, spray can at the ready, the night security guards turn a valve, and he suddenly gets heavily sprayed with a bright pink coat of paint.

This gave his guards such hilarity that he installed a very discreet video camera, so he can share “game films” with his employees, who get to see highlights of the vandals doing their “Agghh! I’ve been painted” dances.