More than 3 percent of all Mason District residents are in deportation proceedings
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| The Immigration Court at 1901 S. Bell St. in Crystal City handles deportation, asylum, and related cases from all over Virginia. [A. Baros/VOA] |
In Mason District, 3.6 percent of the total population are in deportation proceedings.
That number reflects the huge backlog of deportation cases in Virginia, as well as the large immigrant population in Annandale and Culmore in Mason District.
Fairfax County has the 10th highest number of residents in deportation proceedings of any county in the United States, according to the latest data from the TRAC Immigration Project. There are 15,894 residents in deportation proceedings, which represents 1.3 percent of the county’s population.
Huge backlog
Virginia has the fourth-highest proportion of its population in deportation proceedings, per capita, of any state. Only New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts have more.
Two factors lead to the high number of deportation proceedings in Virginia – the large number of cases going into the system and the lack of cases being resolved and going out of the system, says Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director for immigrant advocacy at the Legal Aid Justice Center. “Virginia has the perfect storm.”
It often takes three or four years in Virginia for people to get through the court system. The vast majority of people in deportation proceedings in Fairfax County are out on bond waiting for a court date. Only about 350 to 400 people in all of Virginia are held in detention centers.
When someone’s case gets to court, they will learn whether they can stay or have to leave the country, but it takes years to get to court.
“While people languish in deportation proceedings, their children are living with the knowledge that their parents might not be here in three or four years,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
Legal assistance
“The solution is legal representation,” he said. Immigrants who have a lawyer are much more likely to have a successful outcome in court. But all the nonprofit organizations that provide legal assistance “have waiting lists a mile long.” Any many immigrants can’t afford to hire their own lawyer.
Fairfax County provides less than $1 million a year on lawyers for people in deportation proceedings, and that is “woefully insufficient.”
In Mason District, just 68 percent of immigrants in deportation proceedings have a lawyer, compared to 70 percent in Fairfax County.
The state of Virginia doesn’t provide any funding at all for attorneys. Of the 57,833 Virginians in deportation proceedings, only 68 percent have legal representation. That is higher than the national average of 60 percent, but well below New York with 80 percent and California and Michigan, which each have 77 percent.
Trust policy
Fairfax County’s Trust Policy, adopted by the Board of Supervisors in January, is expected to eventually reduce the number of people in deportation proceedings, but there is such a huge backlog, it could takes three or four years until it makes a difference.
The Trust Policy affirms that the county will not voluntarily cooperate with the enforcement of federal civil immigration laws.
The newly enacted Virginia law allowing non-U.S. citizens to apply for a driver privilege card should help reduce the number of immigrants picked by law enforcement and turned over to immigration officials for driving without a license.
Sandoval-Moshenberg represents undocumented immigrants who came here to escape gang violence or domestic violence or because they can’t feed their families due to crop failure. In the past four or five years, Mason District has seen the biggest increase in immigrants from Guatemala.
People are not coming because they see news reports about possible changes in U.S. immigration policy due to a change in presidential administrations, he said. “If that were the case, the number of people crossing the border would have plummeted during the Trump Administration. That didn’t happen.”
They need to accelerate this process. Insane that nearly 4% of the people who live and sleep in FFX co are in the process of being deported. Driver privilege card? Give me a break
Send them back. I believe in allowing integration to occur at a pace that the County can absorb with out disabling our public safety and services. Instead we have had an avalanche of illegal immigrant invading our neighborhoods while legal aliens take advantage of them and turn our suburban life into one huge boarding house, The Dems don't have a clue, because they live in the tony neighborhoods and the Reps are just plain brain numb from Q juice.
1000 people is not an avalanche
Whether it's 1000 people or not, the point is that the policies of the current administration are not working at regulating the flow at a rate where new arrivals can be effectively assimilated. Many, if not most of these immigrants lack basic skills and can't find work, so you see an increase in crime, such as the stabbing mentioned here (witness the many loitering at the 7-11 or Safeway – this declined during the Trump presidency but is now on the rise again). Fairfax tax payers get to foot the bill for "social" services in the form of higher real estate taxes. – Dave
The number of Mason District residents currently in deportation proceedings is merely a drop in the bucket compared to the number of undocumented aliens living here. That's because Fairfax County is a sanctuary jurisdiction. Although it's difficult to pinpoint their exact numbers, the City of Alexandria has posted an article on its website estimating that there are about 83,000 of them residing in Fairfax County. It's obvious that a substantial number of those undocumented aliens reside in Mason District. Since the federal authorities have been restrained in their efforts to apprehend undocumented aliens, it's also quite likely that a steady stream of undocumented aliens will continue to move here. – Sparky
With the modification to the zoning regulations, along with the new Trust Policy, it stands to reason that even more will be coming to Mason District. A few days ago, there was a stabbing on the trail in Holmes Run park. That seems to be swept under the rug.