At Patrick Henry Elementary School, in Arlington, staff members face unique challenges in dealing with the problems of foreign-born students. (By Bill O'Leary – The Washington Post)

Of nearly 238,000 people in Maryland, Virginia and the District who receive Supplemental Social Income, a monthly grant for the poor who are elderly or disabled, only about 13,000 are noncitizens. Virginia's Medicaid program spent an estimated $40 million on health care for noncitizens in 1997, but most of that money went to help U.S.-born children or for one-time emergencies.

The National Research Council's immigration report challenged assertions by anti-immigrant groups that immigrants raise crime rates, saying this is only a problem in some border areas. Still, the arrival of low-income immigrants in Mount Pleasant in the District, Culmore in Fairfax County and Langley Park in Prince George's County has spawned numerous Latino and Asian youth gangs whose members, police say, sell drugs, steal, beat one another up in turf fights, and force sex on young female members.

"Most often, the kids I deal with on probation were born outside the U.S.," said Gerald Jackson, Fairfax County's chief juvenile probation officer. "We tend to see war refugees" from Central America or Southeast Asia. "The country makes no difference; we see trauma from war zones."

It's clear that immigration has caused demographic changes, but "xenophobia is discouraging," Jackson said. "One man stood up at a meeting and said, 'Why don't we shoot all these illegals?' You almost have to change attitudes one person at a time."

Besides, he added, the problems are not as bad as they were five years ago. "Ethnic leaders are emerging – they don't want to be victimized either," he said. Young immigrants trying to get out of street life have enrolled in a new tattoo-removal program. And, according to Fairfax County Sheriff Carl R. Peed, the number of foreign-born in county detention has decreased from 14 percent to 10 percent of the overall prisoner population.

In the District, the Latin American Youth Center has set up a drop-in program to keep teenagers off the streets and out of trouble. And in Arlington, police have formed a Spanish-speaking task force that removes gang graffiti, questions teenagers loitering in parks and handles calls from worried Latino parents.

Usually, however, the behavior that irks some American-born neighbors of immigrants is not criminal, but cultural: poor immigrants sharing housing and parking a bunch of old cars on the street; Latino women turning their kitchens into informal restaurants or selling homemade food in the neighborhood.

"In some cultures, you always have your mother-in-law ... and other extended family members living with you," said Kim Ouan Cook, a Vietnamese social worker in Falls Church. "Here, people complain that their property values are being destroyed."

Fairfax County Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason) is dismayed when she hears hostile comments about immigrants. "Some of them can only see it as foreigners coming in and taking over," she said. "I tell them, these are your neighbors and mine, and they all want clean water, safe schools, and decent wages – the same things you do."

Jorge Mora, an immigrant from Chile and a Montgomery County homeowner since 1967, agrees. He and his wife, he said, "live life like anybody else – cut the grass, keep it short, go to the beach."

Numbers, Not Clout

"To participate in public life, you have to have a certain amount of leisure time," said Charles Cervantes, a Mexican American lawyer and former Arlington School Board member. "You have to master English, learn complicated issues and not be afraid to speak out. For most immigrants in the first generation, those barriers are just too high."

In the Maryland suburbs, Del. Kumar Barve (D), an immigrant from India, heads Montgomery County's delegation to the state legislature. Prince George's County Del. David M. Valderrama (D) is from the Philippines. But elsewhere in the region, no immigrant has won elective office higher than the school board.

Latinos, by far the largest immigrant group in Washington and its suburbs, "are still in Pampers" politically, said Saul Solorzano, who directs the Central American Resource Center in the District. The city's Hispanics "are seen as a bunch of undocumenteds. [We] haven't been included in policy or resources."

Keith Haller, president of Potomac Survey Research, which tracks political trends in the region, said immigrant and native-born Asian Americans have been more aggressive in registering to vote, raising money and organizing. The area's Hispanics are "just on the cusp of breaking through."

As more foreign-born become eligible to vote, research suggests Republicans will likely attract affluent immigrants and Democrats will draw support from poorer immigrants hoping to preserve social services.

Immigrant activists successfully beat back efforts several years ago in the Virginia General Assembly to require that illegal immigrants in public schools be identified so that they could be deported or forced to repay the government.

"If the hostility level grows, or [immigrants] want a particular change in a law," they will organize themselves, said Toni-Michelle Travis, a government professor at George Mason University. "Then the impact will come.

Arlington community activist Ralph Perrino cites his Italian mother, who took her time learning English and never attended PTA meetings, in predicting that it will take another generation for newer immigrants to raise their profile. "It's the same whether you're Italian, Greek or Vietnamese," the former PTA president said. "The first and second generations feel uneasy approaching institutions in a different culture. ... It takes time for people to work their way into it."