Illegal Workers On GOP Agenda

Latino Leaders Decry Proposals By Va. Delegates

Republican members of Virginia's House of Delegates yesterday announced an ambitious agenda aimed at illegal immigrants in the upcoming legislative session, including a move to ban day-laborer centers that aid workers in the country illegally.

House leaders said they will introduce wide-ranging measures in the General Assembly that would bar illegal immigrants from attending state universities and "scrub" voter rolls of such individuals.

The appearance of House Speaker William J. Howell, Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) and others in front of a Springfield American Legion post capped a day in which Northern Virginia Latino leaders also gathered to decry the "negative tone" of public debate on immigration in the state.

Growing concern by some voters over illegal immigration has been a flashpoint in the state's hotly contested governor's race. Republican Jerry W. Kilgore has run ads on the subject, including a recent spot in which he calls illegal immigration a "growing crisis."

His opponent, Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), said he opposes illegal immigration, but the issue is not a focus of his campaign.

An estimated 200,000 illegal immigrants live in Virginia, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

The Republican group was moved to appear yesterday, according to Howell (R-Stafford), because GOP leaders are "troubled by the fact that government resources at all levels are being stretched thin dealing with safety and security issues caused by illegal immigration."

Del. John S. "Jack" Reid (R-Henrico), put it more bluntly: "People who come here illegally and are not willing to go through the process [of becoming citizens] are not welcome, and I don't want them here."

Later yesterday, Arlington County Board member Walter Tejada (D), who is chairman of the Virginia Latino Advisory Commission, reacted angrily to the GOP comments. He accused the Republicans of "political grandstanding." Their legislative proposals, he said, are "full of code words that show nothing but their bigotry."

Political analyst Mark J. Rozell, a public policy professor at George Mason University, said that the Republicans' news event "is all about the governor's race, there is no doubt about it. . . . This is all about mobilizing their conservative base in an election . . . where the stakes are very high."

They chose Northern Virginia because "Fairfax County has become ground zero in immigration battles in Virginia," Rozell said in reference to the recent controversy surrounding a town-supported day-laborer center to be established in Herndon.

In addition to reintroducing legislation to bar illegal immigrants from state-supported colleges and universities, or at least deny them in-state tuition, the Republicans said they hope to widen local law enforcement authority to detain and deport illegal immigrants arrested for other crimes. They also would toughen penalties for those who manufacture fake birth certificates and driver's licenses and fine businesses that knowingly hire illegal workers $5,000 per incident.