Burning Atlanta

What we're witnessing around the country is that when one locality passes anti-illegal laws, and the illegals leave to adjacent areas, those adjacent areas start talking about the problem. Some pass their own laws targeting illegals. In this instance, illegals are leaving one county and moving to adjacent ones and those counties are trying not to enact new laws.

Thank you, Price William. BTW, the Washington Post is pro-illegal as hell.

Hundreds of foreign-born families have pulled their children from Prince William County public schools and enrolled them in nearby Fairfax County, Arlington County and Alexandria since the start of the school year, imposing a new financial burden on those inner suburbs in a time of lean budgets. Notice that they said "foreign -born" not "illegal aliens."

Opponents of the rules say they have had a chilling effect on Prince William's once-thriving Latino community, prompting even legal immigrants to flee a hostile environment. Supporters say the rules have done what they were supposed to by primarily pushing illegal immigrants out. The "legal" immigrants are leaving because a family member is probably an illegal. I don't know that but one of the pro-illegals mentions that further in the article.

"The resolution is clearly working," said Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large), chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. "It is driving down the non-English-speaking portion of the schools and saving us millions of dollars. They're going to other jurisdictions and costing them money."

Stewart called those jurisdictions "sanctuary" cities and counties, saying illegal immigrants are welcome there. He added: "There is going to be pressure to enact similar resolutions in those neighboring cities and counties." Officials from those jurisdictions reject that assertion. He's right but the slant from TWP is that these areas are dealing with it, no problem.

According to the Prince William school system, enrollment in the English for speakers of other languages, or ESOL, program dropped by 759 between September and March 31. It was the first known instance of a decline in ESOL students, said Irene Cromer, a schools spokeswoman.

During that period, 623 ESOL students from Prince William enrolled in Fairfax schools, compared with 241 in the same period the previous year. Eighty-three enrolled in Arlington, and 75 signed up in Alexandria, the latter up from 10.

Twenty-three ESOL students from Prince William enrolled in Loudoun County, officials there said.

Still, Stewart noted that Prince William's schools expect to save $6 million in education costs as a result of the exodus -- a cost that will be borne by the other communities. Some officials in Fairfax and elsewhere say they expect the numbers to climb in the next academic year.

Local leaders outside Prince William rejected Stewart's assertion that the exodus will increase political pressure to crack down on illegal immigrants. Fairfax leaders recently increased funding for the Enhanced Code Enforcement Strike Team, intended to combat property blight and crowding, which some residents have blamed on immigrants. Leaders have been careful to "focus on behavior and not demonize categories of people," said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

"It's silly for Mr. Stewart to refer to any jurisdiction as a 'sanctuary county,' " Connolly said. "That's just inflammatory and demagogic." YAWN

Arlington's Randolph Elementary School, for instance, "has gotten back" some of the very Latino students whose families had moved away, Superintendent Robert G. Smith said. Smith said his schools are able to absorb the students for now, like Fairfax.

But he urged the State Board of Education, which asked the school systems in March to measure the Prince William exodus, to consider helping schools pay for the new students.

"We don't have an offer of help at this point, but I would certainly welcome it," Smith said. I wonder how the taxpayers will feel if their property taxe are raised to pay for this?