Immigration Leads City's Concerns

The City Council's second legislative priority relating to immigration is a request for state support to enforce zoning laws in single-family neighborhoods.

"It is about overcrowding," council member Andrew L. Harrover (R) said.

He said that the issue is related to health, safety and public welfare but that current codes and enforcement are not strict enough to have an effect. "We are looking for some acknowledgment from the state that a problem exists that just hasn't been dealt with at a state level," he said.

Although crowding is a big issue in Manassas and is often discussed at meetings, Harrover said, complaints about it have decreased over the past year.

Previous attempts to address crowding in the city have not been successful. The U.S. Department of Justice, for one, is investigating complaints by residents, civil rights groups and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that the city illegally targeted Hispanic families in the enforcement of zoning laws, such as with a short-lived anti-crowding ordinance passed last winter that sought to limit the number of extended family members who could share a dwelling.

Complaints are also pending against the city with the U.S. Department of Education from four Hispanic families who claim the Manassas public school system turned over student records to zoning inspectors without notifying the children's parents, a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

"In the absence of any federal or state action to mitigate illegal immigration, the state should underwrite the costs of local governments to do it. The brunt of the cost of illegal immigration, whether it is law enforcement or schools, falls very locally," City Manager Lawrence D. Hughes said.

"All we are saying in many of these priorities is: 'Here are ideas. Here are actions. Here are facts that we as local governments are trying to deal with. The state has the ability to assist with all of them, and here are some ways to assist,' " he said.