Warner urged to declare emergency in illegals crisis

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State legislators said yesterday that Virginia is facing an immigration crisis on par with Arizona and New Mexico and urged Gov. Mark Warner to declare an emergency like the governors of those two states did last week.

Delegate Jeffrey M. Frederick, Prince William County Republican, has asked Mr. Warner, a Democrat, to declare a state of emergency to stop the influx of illegal aliens into the state. Mr. Frederick said that even though Virginia does not share a border with Mexico, the state must take such action to tap federal homeland security dollars to fund police efforts to arrest illegal aliens and hand them over to federal immigration authorities.

"They might be coming through Arizona, but they are landing here," Mr. Frederick said. "It's getting out of control. We really need to do everything we can and utilize every tool that's available to us."

Mr. Frederick, the only Hispanic member of the General Assembly, said such a move would help stem the drain on taxpayer resources caused by illegals who use public services, including hospitals. He still has relatives in Colombia.

Mr. Frederick's Friday letter to the governor likely will net wide support in the Republican-controlled legislature, which earlier this year overwhelmingly passed a measure denying public benefits to illegal aliens and in 2003 required motorists to prove legal residency to obtain driver's licenses.

Conservative estimates put the number of illegal aliens in Virginia at 100,000 to 200,000.

Mr. Warner, completing his last five months in office, has not responded to Mr. Frederick, who has served in the state House since last year.

Warner spokeswoman Ellen Qualls said the office had received the letter and will review it.

"The governor believes we need a comprehensive federal policy on immigration issues, which would include stricter enforcement of our borders, but the issues Arizona and New Mexico face are not the issues Virginia faces," Miss Qualls said. Virginia's safety, she added, is not threatened by the border with North Carolina.

The state-of-emergency declarations by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson freed $1.5 million and $1.75 million, respectively, in state emergency funding. The money will go to border counties to address problems with violence and human and drug trafficking.