Maybe in the human, spiritual or philosophical sense, she is right. If you take a really wide view, you could say that it is ridiculous to say that anybody does or does not have the right to be anywhere.
Where did our property rights come from? We took them. How did we gain dominance over the land? We proclaimed it. Nobody is really born with any God-given right to occupy any particular piece of land. Our human laws and traditions establish where we are allowed to be and what we are allowed to own.
Having said that, we live in a land of human laws, and illegal immigrants are not legally allowed to be here. That actually does mean that they don’t have the right to be here.
Talking about equal rights is a tricky thing to do when you came here illegally. I believe that all human rights should be equal. I believe in compassion, fair play and kindness. But I don’t think that just because you are here, you have a right to be here. The right to be here is granted by U.S. law. If you haven’t been given the right, then you don’t have it. 

I haven’t seen anything like it since I started reporting for the paper almost two years ago. Illegal immigration has mobilized and divided people like nothing else I have seen in my time here. After the smoke clears and the resolution passes or fails, I wonder if the division will continue?
It’s interesting. We opined on our opinion page about Chairman Corey A. Stewart and his use of taxpayer funds to send out a mailer last week. The mailer informed county residents about the vote today.
I have heard a mix of speakers discuss the mailers. Some of them think the mailers were a poor use of taxpayer funds. But other people say that it was an excellent way to get people involved and keep them informed. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective, and perhaps, a matter of what you think about illegal immigration. There is a strong Us vs.Them mentality here. If I had a loudspeaker and a CD player I would play Us and Them by Pink Floyd. I wonder what kind of reaction I would get to that?

The poem is an analogy for the situation with illegal immigration. According to this woman, law-abiding taxpayers are the parents. The illegal immigrants are the children. I’m not sure if the situation is that simple, but it’s an interesting poem. If you are an illegal immigrant, or if you oppose the resolution, I suppose the poem is insulting. But then again, insults fly around the illegal immigration debate like sawdust flies around a wood shop.
After that, a man came up and, from what I could hear, said the lines, “Don’t be swayed. Protect our country,” over and over again.
A few speakers later and Greg Letiecq came to the podium. Greg is better known from his Web site, BVBL. He blogs there on a variety of subjects, including illegal immigration. Greg also helped create, and is president of, Help Save Manassas.
Help Save Manassas is an instrumental force in putting pressure on the board to pass this resolution. It has a lot of support in the anti-illegal immigrant community and, according to him, has more than 1800 members.
“The purpose of this resolution,” he said, “is to restore the rule of law.”

The thought is that the people in these homes are mostly illegal immigrants. Of course, there is no way to know if this is true or not.
Overcrowding is a problem. I am conflicted on this. On the one hand, I think that a person’s home is his/her castle. Whatever the person wants to do in the home should be that person’s business. The problem with overcrowding is that what a person, or in this case a group of people, does in a home becomes a problem for the families living in the surrounding houses. I do think that something needs to be done to prevent people from unsafely piling into single-family homes. But what will the resolution in Prince William County do?
The fact of the matter is that most of the illegal immigrants came from countries where they received few, if any, government services and where they worked mostly low paying jobs. They come to this country primarily for the work. Sure, having fewer services might be more of a burden, but if illegal immigrants can keep their jobs, they will still be better off and they will stay.
And as far as the services go, the ones that will be restricted aren’t really that significant.
—Homeless Intervention Programs
—Adult Day Care
—Bluebird Bus tours
—Community Leadership Institute
—Elderly/Disabled Tax Relief Program
—Public Works Warehouse Sale
These are some of the services that will be denied illegal immigrants. I don’t know how many illegal immigrants utilize these services, but I don’t think there will be a lot of gnashing of teeth over the loss of access to them.

Somebody just pointed out to me a sign that we had overlooked in the crowd outside. It says “Remove Stirrup” in blue letters. Stirrup is Supervisor John T. Stirrup, R-Gainesville: the architect of the resolution.
I don’t know if Stirrup should be removed, but I do think that he, and others on the board, are using this anti-illegal immigrant resolution as a re-election ploy. Why didn’t they bring up this resolution last year? Why not wait until after the election when the pressure is off? Some say that the pressure has to be on in order to get the county to act. Perhaps, but I hate to think that something this important will be hastily done because the proper time wasn’t taken to get it right.