Local Hispanic population burgeoning
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The Associated Press
Published: October 22, 2008
WASHINGTON — Culpeper County had the second-fastest growing Hispanic population by percentage of all counties nationwide between 2000 and 2007, according to a new report released today.
Culpeper finished behind only Frederick County, which has a Hispanic community that has more than quadrupled since 2000.
Among the country’s top 25 metropolitan counties with rapidly-growing Hispanic communities in the new century, seven are in Virginia — more than any other state — and one in Maryland, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington think tank.
Fauquier County landed sixth place, followed by Spotsylvania (10th), Stafford (11th), Loudoun (13th) and Prince William (23rd) counties.
Frederick County, Md. had the 15th fastest-growing Hispanic population on the list.
Many of the high-growth counties were typically outer suburbs or small or mid-sized cities, the Pew report said.
Richard Fry, Pew’s senior research associate and the study’s author, suggested that jobs were the driving force behind the population increases. The report does not address reasons for growth.
“Hispanics are sensitive to labor market opportunities. They tend to migrate where the jobs are,” said Fry, adding that the Washington region’s market has been robust compared to other areas. “I think that’s probably reflective of why so many Virginia counties are on the list.”
Additional factors such as cost of living, quality of life and a network of other Hispanics also has traditionally driven movement to outside of major cities, said Michael Fix, senior vice president of Washington’s Migration Policy Institute, an independent think tank.
He called such suburbanization one of the “massive trends” of immigration.
Chuck DeHaven, a member of the Frederick County Board of Supervisors, said his community nestled in the northern end of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley is indeed growing.
According to the census, the county’s population totaled about 71,000 in 2006. But DeHaven was surprised to hear of the Pew report’s findings.
“I haven’t noticed,” he said of the Hispanic growth Pew reports.
Nationally, Hispanics are the country’s largest minority group, and since the start of this decade accounted for more than half of the overall population growth, according to Pew. The study found that from 2000 to 2007, their numbers mushroomed by 10.2 million to 45.5 million, or a rate of 29 percent. Unlike in the 1990s, Hispanics’ growth was not due to new migration, but births.
Pew used census population estimates to identify 676 fast-growing Hispanic counties among the nation’s 3,141 counties. The booming areas had a Hispanic population of at least 1,000, and a Hispanic growth rate of at least 41 percent from 2000 to 2007.
According to the report, the non-Hispanic population also increased in those areas.
Other residents are “moving for the same reason” as Hispanics, Fix said, referring to job opportunities.
Along with typically being suburbs, fast-growing counties had more Hispanic men than women, slightly more foreign-born nationals and Hispanics who weren’t U.S. citizens.
Those characteristics differ to more established, slow-growing counties nationwide, according to the report.
About one-fifth lived in poverty and about one-third had trouble speaking English — characteristics the Pew study found to be similar to slow-growing counties.
Pew also identified 10 locations — including Virginia’s Arlington County and the city of Alexandria — in which the Hispanic population had decreased since 2000.
Fry attributed that drop to high housing prices.
Hispanic population up
Here are the top 10 counties with the largest Hispanic population growth from 2000 to 2007, according to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington:
1. Frederick County, Va.
2. Culpeper County, Va.
3. Paulding County, Ga.
4. Kendall County, Ill.
5. Henry County, Ga.
6. Fauquier County, Va.
7. Barrow County, Ga.
8. Luzerne County, Pa.
9. Newton County, Ga.
10. Spotsylvania County, Va.
In addition, Stafford County ranked 11th in the nation and Loudoun County ranked 13th.
SOURCE: AP
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Posted by ( Geriberi ) on October 28, 2008 at 4:29 pm
We actually have a poster here who hires (or at least did at one time) illegals for their business. It’s not difficult to find that most people’s motive, when defending this national disaster, is greed, either for themselves, or an association, like one of the Culpeper big deals who’s such good buddies with many on the Town Council. Talk about corruption.
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Posted by ( copper ) on October 28, 2008 at 2:49 pm
MST and Geriberi, you are absolutely correct, but as usual for speaking the truth you will be labeled a racist. Illegal alien defenders have no clue as to the damage illegal aliens do to this Country. When one of these illegals robs,assaults,rapes or drives drunk and kills one of their loved ones, then they will see the light, but it will be too late. Sadly tragedy has to happen for some to open their eyes and see illegal aliens are bad for our Country!
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Posted by ( mst ) on October 28, 2008 at 8:40 am
Illegal immigration is like pornography - it’s hard to determine; but, you know it when you see it. While there are a number of Hispanics here legally, I think the great majority are here illegally. Can’t prove it because laws only allow one to make that determination after they are arrested for a violent crime. As for the 40 to a house one need only drive through the barrio known as Sleepy Hollow Trailer Park on a warm summer evening and see a couple hundred people sitting on their junk cars with North Carolina tags drinking a Carona to know that more than a couple people reside in each trailer. The schools are too wimpy to provide an accurate count and the hospitals just grin and bear it. It’s sad to watch a once great country sink to third world status because no one had the guts to meet the problem head-on. Where are the MacArthurs, Bradleys, Pattons. Instead we have the Powells, Clintons, Obamas.
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Posted by ( Geriberi ) on October 28, 2008 at 7:42 am
If we defend illegal immigration, we are guilty of adding to our huge national deficit. They are in Culpeper County, in large numbers, and that costs money for services. They are putting a huge burden on us nationally, and we can’t afford to pay for them. We need better enforcement of our laws. If our local government were more cooperative, and not influenced by their greenhouse-owner buddies and others getting rich off of these people (and their own emotional ties), the population would not be as large as it is here. It’s easy to defend an issue when you actually profit from it.
Culpeper also now has an issue with gang-related problems. Money is the least of our worries, here.
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Posted by ( senseit53 ) on October 25, 2008 at 11:25 am
Lawman, no-one is suggesting that illegal children aren’t allowed to be burdening our schools systems. But the ruling allowing them to detract from the education of legal American children, does NOT keep us from attempting to identify the extent of this problem. The CBO est. there to be over 2 mil illegals and another 3 mil “anchor babies”. We have a right to know this information for purposes of allocating funding. However, those who cry “racist” or “civil rights violation” in this regard are just trying to prevent the true numbers and the true extent of this massive illegal invasion from coming to the fore. Because they know that once America begins to realize how our country is being systematically stolen from underneath our very noses, they will really rise up to stop this massive invasion.
Just because Cox said the politically correct thing does not detract from the reality of the estimates, nor the fact that illegals are burdening our school systems both financially and productively.
Also, show us where I even remotely insinuated, “In your world you’d like to have hospitals deny services to a human being and let them bleed to death all because anyone walking into an emergency room couldn’t show proof of citizenship.“? Which words?
rjma, work in a industry where illegals are flooding the labor market with cheap labor and you will see “How exactly has any Hispanic person here illegally hurt you?“ Stagnant wages are hurting legal Americans in all these industries. This includes the aforementioned education problem which cheapens the education of literally EVERY legal child in this country.
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Posted by ( copper ) on October 24, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Illegal aliens cost American taxpayers billions of dollars a year. They also comprise 30% of our Federal prison population and account for nearly one million sex crimes each year. But some say they have no impact on our economy or our way of life, they are living in fantasy land and refuse to face the facts. The following websites will provide clear factual information on the impact of illegal ailens and you can decide for yourself: www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalecec.html, www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf, http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html, http://tinyurl.com/zob77
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Posted by ( LawMan ) on October 24, 2008 at 9:03 am
Senseit53 you have it wrong. It was never said that we had 600-900 illegal aliens in our public schools in Culpeper. Dr. Cox stated that all children were legal to receive an education by law.
Schools ask all parents the same thing when you register children for school. Under law all children receive an education. Citizenship is not asked. Immunization records, proof of residency in both the Commonwealth and the county they reside, proof of guardianship with a birth certificate and current physical are on the list. Social security numbers are optional. Many parents to include myself don’t provide a social security number. Schools don’t decide who is legal or illegal. They are required by law as stated so many times by many to include myself under Plyler vs. Doe to educate every child regardless of citizenship status.
The answer is pretty simple on Casa de Maryland or any group wanting to know citizenship status of children in our public schools. Until the Supreme Court says illegal aliens are not afforded the same constitutional rights as you and I schools won’t ask citizenship status of children. Want to change that? Plyler vs. Doe will have to be reversed by a decision of the Supreme Court. In your world you’d like to have hospitals deny services to a human being and let them bleed to death all because anyone walking into an emergency room couldn’t show proof of citizenship. At least I still remember what it’s like to be a human redardless of any situation.
Yes Americans should know the truth on who is abusing the services at DSS. After all it is legal citizens that abuse and have been abusing the system for years. Illegal aliens can’t even receive food stamps or the services people like you blather about constantly. Our local DSS office here in Culpeper will tell you. You instead saw Hispanic individuals walk in and out of a DSS office as you worked above it for days. Deny it all you want but in your round about way you said it online.
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Posted by ( Sandalwood ) on October 24, 2008 at 7:40 am
My apologies. You have shown me the light. In the future every “Hispanic looking” person I see sitting/standing/laying on the side of the roads and shopping in WalMart I will assume they are either legally here or American citizens paying their taxes, paying for their children’s school books and lunches, buying a home, and living a drug free, lawabiding life. Thank you for clearing this up for me!
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Posted by ( justme ) on October 24, 2008 at 12:57 am
This article is about the Hispanic population, not about immigrants. Why do you assume all Hispanics are immigrants? Is it impossible to think that there are Hispanic Americans? Yes, Hispanics that are American citizens, born in this country, I know many! We also have Hispanics that have become citizens after legally immigrating and there are plenty of legal resident alien Hispanics as well. Believe it or not I also know Hispanics that are more fluent in English then they are in Spanish! Why do people have to start complaining about illegal immigration the minute there is an article about Hispanics? And why do you assume that all illegal immigrants are Hispanic? Think about it.
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Posted by ( quetzalmom ) on October 24, 2008 at 12:26 am
Perhaps the people Sandlewood saw in Walmart included the ever reasonable and intelligent poster Lawman’s wife. Perhaps he also saw my adopted very legal, very hispanic appearing son. Perhaps he sees reality through the lens of his own prejudice.
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