Back when the immigration reform bill failed, I predicted that the result would be more cities/counties passing ordinances that try to “fix” the situation. Unfortunately I was right.

The resolution approved unanimously by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday orders police officers to verify the residency status of anyone in custody whom they suspect to be an illegal immigrant. The resolution also seeks to block access to public services and benefits for illegal immigrants, claiming they are causing “economic hardship and lawlessness” in the county. The measures — the toughest in Virginia — apply to all illegal immigrants, but in Prince William that means mostly Hispanics.

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Police and other county agencies have yet to establish procedures for the stepped-up enforcement, but the practical impact was in plain view last week along Route 1 in Woodbridge, a usually busy commercial strip lined with Hispanic-owned businesses.

Markets and restaurants were nearly empty, with slow sales reported at almost a dozen shops and restaurants. “What’s going on?” wondered one manager of a Popeye’s who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Why is it so slow?”

A nearby KFC popular with Hispanics was nearly deserted at lunchtime. Meanwhile, business was booming at Pizza Hut, where the manager reported a spike in home delivery calls.

It will be interesting to see the long-term effects of this measure and how it plays out in terms of legal challenges. I am very concerned about how far these localities will go and just how long it will take to stop them.

I’ve always been a bit of a weepy girl, crying if reprimanded by an authority figure (working on it!) and at chick flicks, but it is only since Pumpkinhead’s birth that I’ve become one of those women that cry at the mere suggestion of something bad happening to a child. That explains why Chapin started laughing when he came into our room Friday night and saw me sobbing my eyes out mere pages into this book.

Unfortunately, while it might have been appropriate to laugh at me for crying at something more fluffy, Sonia Nazario’s book, Enrique’s Journey, is worthy of every tear and then some. Nazario spent years researching to profile the journey of one young man who undertook the very dangerous journey from Honduras through Mexico to reach the United States. The horrors he witnessed and experienced are breathtaking, but what touched me the most was his sense that his mother had abandoned him… for what? He didn’t understand and she thought he should have been grateful for her sacrifice. That story is the most touching and thought provoking part of the whole book.

If you haven’t read the book or the LA Times pieces that preceded it, I would suggest you run out and pick up a copy. I think it is a very measured piece that would speak to people on all sides of the immigration debate. Nazario really reports the good, bad and ugly of the whole experience and I don’t think you come out of it with any answers. Never before have I quite understood what my sociology teachers were talking about when they discussed the Mexican border issues with Central Americans. Never before have I understood why my Central American family members have such a distrust (bordering on hatred) of Mexicans, although now I can clearly see both sides’ points of view. What shocked me the most was that someone I know who crossed the U.S. border in this way had mentioned “riding on trains” but I ignorantly thought that person was talking about hiding out in a boxcar or something similarly romantic. This tale of highly dangerous train-top journeys full of decapitations, mutilations, etc., put the tale into a whole new context.

The tears have dried now and in their place is a renewed commitment to find some way to serve these children and families when I get out of law school. I’m adding this to my bookshelf of Latino immigrant tales (yes, I have a whole bookshelf full — see top shelf picture below) and am certain it will, like the others, become dog-eared, highlighted and flagged as the years go by.

How to Help

Church in Northern Mexico that runs an immigrant shelter:
Parroquia de San Jose
Attn: Father Leonardo Lopez Guajardo
Apartado 26
Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
Codigo Postal 88000
MEXICO
Phone: 011-52-867-712-8145.

Shelter in Southern Mexico that helps immigrants hurt by the train:
Albergue Jesús el Buen Pastor del pobre y el Migrante
Attn: Olga Sanchez Martinez
Calle Rio de la Plata
Manzana 8
Casa 8
Infonavit Las Vegas
Tapachula, Chiapas
CP 30790
MEXICO

Phone: 011-52-962-626-9698