As expected, Loudoun County’s board of supervisors has passed measures aimed at clamping down on illegal immigration. Following suit with neighbor Prince William County, each jurisdiction’s new laws bear much similarity, and it’s only a matter of time before additional neighboring counties follow suit. Read today’s Washington Post article on the topic.

The county’s decision to pursue appear impulsive and have created a sort of sugar-coated state of emergency in the entire Northern Virginia area that surrounds the D.C. Metro area. Whether the desperate measures are as superfluous as they seem is subjective, at least at this early stage.

These actions, though they might prove an effective means of reducing illegal immigration, carry an ethnocentric stigma – simply because of the fuel behind the flames. My point is based on the principle that the means to achieve a goal for the good of society at large must be led by well-intended people – unfortunately these efforts are being supported by people that are essentially anti-immigration…regardless of legality. They prefer a last ditch, seek-and-destroy approach that forgoes conventional diplomacy and progressive community involvement.

In the words of Joseph W. Budzinski, spokesman for Help Save Loudoun:

‘I think this is the first step of Virginians taking back their state’ (Washington Post, July 2007).