Interesting local Northern Virginia story that has broader implications on the different political strategies of the two sides of a local immigration fight in Prince William County. The residents supporting a package of enforcement measures did what you’d expect of middle-class Americans — they phoned, faxed, and e-mailed the county supervisors. The anti-enforcement side was organized by the group Mexicans Without Borders (which right there pretty much told everyone all they needed to know) and it relied on the boycott, the general strike, turning out en masse at board meetings, and chanting “si se puede!” at every opportunity.

The American side won the vote of every supervisor, even the Democrats.

I especially liked this line in the Post story from the head of Mexicans Without Borders:

“The American people express themselves by marching,” he said in Spanish.

(Is it safe to assume that the reporters have been sent to re-education camp for writing that?) The guy confused American political marches, designed to generate TV pictures and reinforce morale among members of a movement, with the extra-constitutional, third-world concept of direct action. Which is no surprise, considering this from a profile of the guy (Ricardo Juarez) earlier this year:

Zapata’s modern-day acolytes, the leftist rebels of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, have shaped Juarez’s worldview and inspired his organizational strategies — minus the ski masks and AK-47s.

Hey, no AK-47s — that’s nice. As Greg Letiecq, the leader of the pro-enforcement camp, observed:

“That’s not the way politics is done in the United States,” he said, calling the rallies and protests by his opponents “a political engagement model from Mexico.”

Some local Hispanic businessmen are less clue-impaired than Juarez, and are running ads rather than threatening people. As one of their number put it:

“We want to do this in an organized way that doesn’t expose us to look like we aren’t respectable or disciplined.”

Well, it’s a start.