Protest Styles Presented A Clash of Cultures, And One Decisively Won

That view was firmly shared by every member of the Board of Supervisors, Jenkins said. The board's decision to defer action at a previous meeting was the result of concerns about the county's financial situation, he said, not a sign of uncertainty. If anyone thought the board was going to backtrack, "that was a totally erroneous opinion," Jenkins said.

Though outnumbered at the Oct. 16 meeting, Letiecq's members had fired off 10,000 e-mails and 1,000 faxes in the lead-up to the vote -- so many that lawmakers had to unplug their machines. County officials reported that 85 to 90 percent of the correspondence they received endorsed the crackdown.

Supervisor John T. Stirrup Jr. (R-Gainesville), who introduced the plan for the crackdown in June, said those in favor of it were "well-organized," while those opposed were "well-orchestrated."

Most of supporters' outreach "was done through e-mails. It proved to be effective, in terms of sheer numbers," Stirrup said. Of opponents' effort he said, "It seems like it was well orchestrated to turn out that large a crowd."

Following the defeat, Mexicans Without Borders coordinator Ricardo Juarez stood by his group's tactics, saying they were chosen democratically through community assemblies held after plans for the crackdown were announced. He rejected the idea that marches, protests and other measures were ill-suited for Prince William politics, even though the group's boycott and the one-day strike had scant effect on the local economy.

"The American people express themselves by marching," he said in Spanish. "I've seen a lot of marches in Washington, D.C., that have had nothing to do with immigrants."

Although Letiecq and Help Save Manassas worked directly with supervisors to develop the policies, Juarez said his group's attempts to sit with county leaders were rebuffed. He said the board, which is all white, might have been more sympathetic if it more accurately reflected Prince William's ethnic diversity.

"There's nothing more we could have done," Juarez said. "If there was a failure here, it was the authorities' failure to listen to us."

Although Mexicans Without Borders was built mostly through word-of-mouth networks and old-fashioned handbill advertising, Letiecq said he built Help Save Manassas on the model developed by the gun rights group Virginia Citizens Defense League, of which he is a member.

"We get people to step up and do their own lobbying," he explained. "We educate them, keep them informed and get them engaged with phone calls, faxes, e-mails, and by showing up at supervisors' time."

The group has also wielded Tuesday's election to its advantage. Although the measures were first proposed by Stirrup, board Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) became the biggest public champion of the crackdown, running his reelection campaign on the slogan "Fighting Illegal Immigration." Letiecq described Stewart's conversion to his group's cause as "the ultimate Gandhi moment," a galvanizing realization for the candidate.

Since then, Letiecq and Help Save Manassas have pressed to make the illegal immigration issue a test for area candidates -- crafting voters' guides, sponsoring candidate forums and threatening incumbent supervisors with electoral defeat.

In contrast, the crackdown's opponents acknowledged they were hurt by a lack of electoral clout, as far fewer are citizens and therefore eligible to vote. But Juarez said county officials showed an "undemocratic" favoritism toward one part of the community over another by disregarding their concerns. The supervisors "represent the entire community, not just those who are eligible to vote," he said.

Since the Oct. 16 meeting, Latino leaders in the region have redoubled their efforts to increase turnout on Election Day and urge Latino candidates to run for office. One Woodbridge resident, Aracely Panameno, has announced her candidacy as a write-in challenger to Jenkins, who had been running unopposed.

Letiecq is looking beyond the election with a plan to continue spreading Help Save Manassas's message and model across the commonwealth. "Once we've created the structure, we can get people involved from across the political spectrum," he said.

Geography and firsthand experience have shaped views on illegal immigration, Letiecq said, not politics. "When you have an overcrowded house with day laborers on your street, you want something done about it," he said.

"We've gotten folks who don't normally get engaged in the political process to get very engaged, very quickly."