Last October the citizens of Prince William Country in Virginia let their racism get the better of them and decided to run their tax paying Latino neighbors out of town. To do this they passed racial profiling laws which allowed cops to pull over anyone they felt might be an illegal immigrant thus a “crime suspect”, question them about their immigration status, lock them up, and disrupt the lives of citizens who just happen to be driving, walking, or working while Latino or an immigrant. They claimed these measures were to ‘rid their county of illegal immigrantion.’ With all that hostility, legal and illegal immigrants started leaving town. Over 700 kids went missing from the county’s ESL programs reserved for legal residents. Some took this as “evidence” that ‘the illegals were here’. But the big pinch from the County’s racism came in the form of a tax shortfall.

You don’t have to be an economist to know that if you run your tax payers out of town, you are running out your taxes. The County’s officials started coming up with ideas to raise money for their ‘surprise’ budget deficit while holding on to their racist laws. First up was raising property taxes by a whopping 5% – to which the citizens said “Hell no!” Hmm… (racists don’t like paying for their racism?) Next up was dismantling their justice infrastructure even further – they moved to removed cameras from police cars (a cost savings of over $3 million) so there would be no evidence when the cops harass citizens for driving while Latino.

Last night residents who don’t want to shoulder the tax burden that residents fleeing racism have left behind, forced their County officials to change the rules — immigration status will be checked only after an arrest is made in Prince William County.