That's a good one Richie.

Not only in Rhode Island, but just outside the White House others have taken to enforcing the immigration laws.

I lived in the suburbs of Washington, DC, in Prince William County, Va., when the county enacted tough new laws on illegal immigrants about three years ago. The laws on Prince William County's book regard not only arrests of illegals, but social services and public education.

It is one of the fastest growing counties in the US with the seventh largest immigrant population in the nation.

The year before the Prince William County, Va., Board of Supervisors passed the new law, the US Congress failed to overhaul the existing immigration laws with a comprehensive bill which pretty much tossed ball to the states and counties most affected by the presence of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

Opponents and proponents cried the same rallying chants we are hearing now. Only the sky didn't fall. It is all very interesting.

"The boom in the Washington region's population in the past few decades, transformed little known suburban communities such as Prince William and Loudoun counties from rural islands to vast suburbs, lined with shopping centers, million dollar homes and gridlocked with traffic," according to an article in Medill Reports Washington.

"Growth and affluence made the entire Washington region a magnet for immigrants – legal and illegal—making the region with the seventh largest immigrant population in the nation.

"Prince William County experienced explosive economic and population growth for the better part of this decade, attracting thousands of construction workers and day laborers to help expand the community. The county had the fourth largest Hispanic growth rate in the country from 2000 to 2006 and grew by almost 150 percent, according the U.S. Census Bureau.

"The phenomena turned Hispanics into the major ethnic group in the county. The Hispanic population grew by 183 percent from 1990 to 2000 and by 2007 was roughly 19 percent of the county population. The white population grew by 7.7 percent.

"Overcrowding was an unavoidable consequence of the exponential growth the county experienced. The county welcomed more than 75,000 new residents since 2000. And in the span of fifty years, the population increased seven-fold, from 50,000 to more than 380,000. The demographic stress started to push resources and services and local politicians to the brink."




Here's a old Washington Post story about the law:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...071002093.html