Manassas Changes Definition Of Family

In Manassas, the ordinance is one of several steps the city has taken. In October, Mayor Douglas S. Waldron (R) asked Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) to declare a state of emergency in Virginia regarding illegal immigration, as have governors in New Mexico and Arizona. The declaration, which would make localities eligible for federal homeland security dollars, was not made. Waldron also asked for expanded police powers to identify and arrest illegal immigrants.

Waldron and two city lawyers did not return several calls.

"It isn't just too many people in the house," said Manassas Vice Mayor Harry J. "Hal" Parrish II. "It's impacting parking on the streets. It's impacting the hospital and its costs, our emergency services, our schools to a great extent."

Parrish said he understands why some people might think the ordinance is racist, but he disagrees. "In my heart, I believe that is not the issue," he said. "The issue is the impact of overcrowding in our community. It looks as though that issue is a direct result of illegal immigration."

But Chavez and her husband, Juan, are U.S. citizens. They came from Honduras in the 1980s, worked more than one job -- she at two laundromats, he as a cook -- and eventually saved enough to buy the house on Liberia Avenue in 2003 for $270,000.

Now, faced with the loss of rental income and with a $3,500 monthly mortgage to pay, Chavez said, they are going to sell. The family will never buy a house again, she said.

Chavez, who has two nephews in the military who served in Iraq, said she could understand having some kind of rule against overcrowding.

"When it's 20 or 30 people, when there are drinkers, drugs, I say yes," she said.

Considering, though, that every house on her block more or less resembles hers, and considering that she has only seven people living in a five-bedroom house, she was suspicious about why she was singled out. As far as she knew, she and her husband were just doing what any normal family would do to make it.

"Americans live that way, too," Chavez said. "They have roommates."

In Manassas, a city of about 40,000 with a rapidly growing Latino population -- it is 72 percent white, 15 percent Latino and 13 percent black -- some residents see the rule as a bizarre form of social engineering. Others are indifferent, thinking they will not be subjected to the "bedroom police." The ordinance is enforced by complaint, and so far, complaints have overwhelmingly been against Latinos, Purchase said.

A vocal number of locals have welcomed the ordinance, saying they hope it will help alleviate complaints about trash, parking problems and tight school budgets as well as more general feelings of unease that somehow, the city is not theirs anymore.