Seasons Greetings! The holidays have snuck up on me but I will post episode 5 of Wrestling Darkness soon. In the meantime, I have added 9500 Liberty to the podcast feed. Within the opening seconds, you’ll understand how it relates. —Eric
Arc of justice
It looked pretty bleak for immigrant advocates in Prince William County, Virginia. On July 10th, 2007 the Board of County Supervisors had suddenly and unanimously passed “The Immigration Resolution,” legislation written for them by an anti-immigrant lobbying firm in Washington D.C.
The Immigration Resolution required police officers to apply greater scrutiny to people who looked like immigrants. Once they had stopped a person for an otherwise lawful reason, such as a speeding ticket, police officers would be mandated to ask for proof of legal status if they discerned “probable cause” based on their appearance.
Civil rights attorneys raised concerns about racial profiling and violations of the Constitution, in particular, Equal Protection under the law.
Police officers were worried about losing the trust of communities of color, something they had worked hard to earn, and an important tool in preventing and solving crimes. Citizens and recent immigrants wondered if they would get pulled over by the cops because of the color of their skin.
Ambush
In a county of 380,000 residents, no one seemed to know about the Board of County Supervisors’ fateful vote in advance, with the exception of an arch-conservative County Supervisor, the Beltway lobbyists who had approached him, and a local group of activists calling themselves “Help Save Manassas.”
Help Save Manassas was led by a blogger named Greg Letiecq, a talented writer with fantasist communication skills far ahead of his time. It was as if Steve Bannon had used a time machine to send a digital foot soldier from the future.
If a crime was committed by a person with a Latin-sounding name, the blog would pounce with frightening images and dire warnings about an invasion of dangerous criminals. Letiecq’s blog posts (and his chorus of commenters) created the perception that there was a crime wave in the county, even though crime rates had been steadily falling for years as the immigrant population had grown. The blog even blamed immigrants for the existence of rats.
In the year-plus before the immigration controversy, Letiecq had attracted a sizable fan base — hundreds, perhaps thousands. He could persuade many of them to write an email to the Board of County Supervisors, or appear in person to speak during “Citizens Time,” with the click of a button.
The Board of County Supervisors — made up of 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats at that time —quaked in their boots. Never had they received so many emails! The votes in favor of the Immigration Resolution in September and October were unanimous also.
The Latino community responded with mass protests and angry denunciations. But the popular perception was that the immigrants were not voters, and thus should be ignored by elected officials sworn to represent Real Americans.
And the Real Americans wanted the immigrants removed as quickly as possible, so much so that they were willing to divert public safety resources to do it.
When the widely respected Chief of Police, Charlie Deane, who had been serving the county for five decades, was informed he was being attacked on a blog, he said, “What’s a blog?”
People who opposed Letiecq’s views read the blog too. They felt compelled to keep up to date on who he was coming after next.
If a business leader or a member of the clergy expressed reservations about the Immigration Resolution, the blog and its commenters would attack them viciously. Boycott the church! Boycott the business! People were receiving death threats. And when advocates for the Immigration Resolution addressed the Board during Citizens Time, they echoed the blog’s hyperbolic rhetoric.
“One way or another, we will repel this invasion!” one man, a previously respected attorney, famously shouted. The specter of mob violence was in the air.
Oh, and there was a statewide election taking place at the same time. The Democratic candidates were under pressure to shift to the right on immigration. At one point, I walked past the office of the incumbent Democratic state senator for the area. I could see through the window that the blog was up on the computer monitor. It was everywhere!
Despite all of that, things were about to change, and quickly.
The Regular Person Strikes Back
The extended trailer for 9500 Liberty tells the story in 4-minutes. But I do recommend listening to or watching the entire film because experiencing it in 78 minutes gives you a sense of how it felt to live in a climate of fear, and what it took to overcome it.
Everyday people banded together, inspiring one another with hard work, innovative ideas, and periodic doses of civic courage.
The turning point came when a woman created a second blog to oppose the first one. Writers on the blog used their own names to stand up to the bullies, so to speak. They also organized email campaigns and recruited people to speak at “Citizens Time.” They did all of this with a cohesive message structured around the common good (whereas the previous opposition had mostly been immigrants standing up for their families and religious people defending “the least of these.”)
Facts about crime soon triumphed over fictions. Morality and ethics were still part of the argument, but these were joined fiscal responsibility and legal liability. Would the U.S. Department of Justice be okay with requiring the police to profile people? If not, would they file suit against the county as they had in other jurisdictions that appeared to run afoul of the Constitution? What if a legal resident felt his or her rights had been abused and filed a lawsuit? What if dozens of them did? Would frightening away a few thousand immigrants be worth the cost to taxpayers?
The growing coalition included moderate Republicans, Democrats, and independents. It included members of business community, members of the faith community, and concerned citizens of every race and ethnicity. Each new person who stepped forward emboldened the next to do the same.
The Supervisors and others in the county government saw that there was at least as much opposition to the “probable cause” mandate as there was support.
In the end, it was an economic argument that pushed them over the top. Immigrant families took flight it droves. Homes and businesses were abandoned, decimating property values and with them the county budget and the local economy.
Proponents of the “probable cause” mandate fell victim to some unfortunate timing — the mandate went into effect just when the economic impact of all the fear and controversy was becoming undeniably visible.
The leading economist in the area explained in a widely seen video that business owners, customers, and capital (money) were leaving Prince William County because of the controversy and the radical shift in policy. The home foreclosure crisis, he rightly judged, was part of a worsening national crisis, but the immigration fight had made it much worse in Prince William County than in surrounding counties, and he had the data to back it up.
In sum: it became clear that the Immigration Resolution was hurting everyone; not just its intended targets.
The mandate for immigration status checks based on “probable cause” was stripped from the books on April 29th, 2008. Life returned to normal. And, crime? After a brief spike that coincided with the ugly controversy, crime rates continued to fall.
If you haven’t seen/heard it yet, I strongly recommend Wrestling Darkness, Episode 4 featuring Professor Lawrence Lessig of the Harvard Law School.
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