Members of the clergy link arms with counterprotesters in front of Emancipation Park Saturday, August 12, as alt-right groups of white nationalists arrive in waves. Photo by Natalie Krovetz
It was the day that kept getting worse. The weekend from hell. Like many of you, C-VILLE Weekly is still processing Saturday’s violation from ill-intentioned visitors with antiquated notions who now believe it’s okay to say in broad daylight what they’ve only uttered in the nether regions of the internet.
The Unite the Right rally left three people dead and countless injured, both physically and psychologically. We, too, share the sorrow, despair and disgust from being slimed by hate.
But here’s one thing we know: Despite the murder, the assaults and the terror inflicted upon this community, Charlottesville said no to hate. And the world, it turns out, has our back.
We sent six reporters and two photographers out to document the August 12 rally at Emancipation Park, the community events taking place around it and the weekend of infamy. Here’s a timeline of what we saw and what we felt. Because this? This is our town.
It’s the time of year C-VILLE editorial staffers dread most: landing on the final names for our Power Issue, followed by the inevitable complaints that the list contains a bunch of white men. Sure, there are powerful women and people of color in
Charlottesville. But when it comes down to it, it’s still mostly white men who hold the reins—and a lot of them are developers. The good news: that’s changing. (And we welcome feedback about who we missed, sent to editor@c-ville.com.)
If you’re looking for a different take on power, skip over to our Arts section, where local creative-industry leaders share their most powerful moments (grab some Kleenex!) on page 46.
1. Robert E. Lee statue
More than 150 years after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, he continues to be a divisive figure—or at least his statue is. The sculpture has roiled Charlottesville since a March 2016 call (see No. 2 Wes Bellamy and Kristin Szakos) to remove the monument from the eponymously named park.
As a result, in the past year we’ve seen out-of-control City Council meetings, a Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces, a City Council vote to remove the statue, a lawsuit and injunction to prevent the removal and the renaming of
the park to Emancipation.
The issue has turned Charlottesville into a national flashpoint and drawn Virginia
Flaggers, guv hopeful and former Trump campaign state chair Corey Stewart, and Richard Spencer’s tiki-torch-carrying white nationalists. Coming up next: the Loyal White Knights of the KKK July 8 rally and Jason Kessler’s “Unite the Right” March August 12.
You, General Lee, are Charlottesville’s most powerful symbol for evoking America’s unresolved conflict over its national shame of slavery and the racial inequity still present in the 21st century.
Spawn of the Lee statue
Jason Kessler
Before the statue debate—and election of Donald Trump—Charlottesville was blissfully unaware of its own, homegrown whites-righter Jason Kessler, who unearthed Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s offensive tweets from before he took office and launched an unsuccessful petition drive to remove Bellamy from office, calling him a “black supremacist.” Since then, Kessler has slugged a man, filed a false complaint against his victim and aligned himself with almost every white nationalist group in the country, while denying he’s a white nationalist. The blogger formed Unity and Security in America and plans a “march on Charlottesville.” Most recently, we were treated to video of him getting punched while naming cereals in an initiation into the matching-polo-shirt-wearing Proud Boys.
SURJ
The impetus for the local Showing Up for Racial Justice was the seemingly unrelenting shootings of black men by police—and white people wanting to do something about it. But the Lee statue issue has brought SURJ into its own militant niche. Pam and Joe Starsia, who say they can’t speak for the collective, are its most well-known faces. The group showed up at Lee Park with a bullhorn to shout down GOP gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart, interrupted U.S. Representative Tom Garrett’s town hall and surrounded Kessler at outdoor café appearances on the Downtown Mall, shouting, “Nazi go home!” and “Fuck white supremacy!”—perhaps unintentionally making some people actually feel sorry for Kessler.
2.City Council
Not all councilors are equally powerful, but together—or in alliances—they’ve kept the city fixated on issues other than the ones citizens normally care about: keeping traffic moving and good schools.
Mayor Mike Signer. Photo by Eze Amos
Mike Signer
Mayor Signer took office in January 2016 in what is widely seen as a step to higher office. He immediately riled citizens by changing the public comment procedure at City Council meetings. A judge determined part of the new rules were unconstitutional, but some council regulars say the meetings do move along much better—at least when they’re not out of control with irate citizens expressing their feelings on the Lee statue. Signer called a public rally, sans permit, to proclaim Charlottesville the capital of the resistance. And despite his vote against removing the statue, he’s not shied away from denouncing the white nationalists drawn to Charlottesville like bears to honey.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy. Photo by Eze Amos
Wes Bellamy
Most politicians would be undone by the trove of racist, misogynistic and homophobic tweets Bellamy made before he was elected to City Council. As it was, they cost him his job as an Albemarle County teacher (a post from which he resigned after being placed on administrative leave) and a position on the Virginia Board of Education. But he fell on the sword, apologized and acknowledged the “disrespectful and, quite frankly, ignorant” comments he posted on Twitter. Perhaps it helped that Bellamy, at age 30, is a black male leader, has real accomplishments and has dedicated himself to helping young African-Americans. Despite his missteps, he is the voice for a sizable portion of Charlottesville’s population.
City Councilor Kristen Szakos. Photo by Elli Williams
Kristin Szakos
Szakos raised the topic of removing the city’s Confederate monuments several years before she teamed up with Bellamy, and she was soundly harassed for her trouble. When she ran for office, she called for town halls in the community and bringing council to the people, and she’s always demonstrated a concern for those who can’t afford to live in the world-class city they call home. She announced in January she won’t be seeking a third term in the fall.
City Councilor Kathy Galvin. Photo by Christian Hommel
Kathy Galvin
Galvin, an architect, envisions a strategic investment area south of the Downtown Mall, and her job will be to convince residents it’s a good deal for them. Council’s moderate voice, she, along with Signer, were the two votes against removing the Lee statue.
City Councilor Bob Fenwick. Photo by Chiara Canzi
Bob Fenwick
Even before losing the Democratic nomination June 13 with a dismal 20 percent of the vote, Fenwick was always the odd man out on council. His moment in the sun came earlier this year when he abstained from a split vote on removing the Lee statue, lobbied for pet causes among his fellow councilors and then cast his vote in the “aye” side, joining Bellamy and Szakos. That vote did not yield the groundswell of support he might have imagined from the black community. And although he leaves council at the end of the year as a one-termer, there are those who have appreciated Fenwick’s refusal to join in lockstep with the rest of council, and his willingness to call out its penchant for hiring consultants without taking action.
Coran Capshaw. Photo by Ashley Twiggs
3. Coran Capshaw
Every year we try to figure out how to do the power list without including Capshaw. But with his fingers in pies like Red Light Management (Dave Matthews, Sam Hunt); venues (the Pavilion, Jefferson, Southern and, most recently, the Brooklyn Bowl); Starr Hill Presents concert promotion and festivals such as Bonnaroo; merchandise—earlier this year, he reacquired Musictoday, which he founded in 2000; restaurants (Mas, Five Guys, Mono Loco, Ten) and of course development, with Riverbend Management, we have to acknowledge this guy’s a mogul. There’s just no escaping it.
In local real estate alone, Capshaw is a major force. Here are just a few Riverbend projects: City Walk, 5th Street Station, C&O Row, the rehabbed Coca-Cola building on Preston and Brookhill.
True, he fell from No. 7 to 11 on this year’s Billboard Power 100, but in Charlottesville, his influence is undiminished. And now he’s getting awards for his philanthropy, including Billboard’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2011, and this year, Nashville’s City of Hope medical center’s Spirit of Life Award.
UVA’s Rotunda. Photo by Karen Blaha
4. UVA
In January, UVA President Teresa Sullivan announced her summer 2018 retirement, and directed the Board of Visitors to begin the search for a new leader to rule Thomas Jefferson’s roost, the top employer in Virginia with its state-of-the-art medical center, a near-Ivy League education system and a couple of research parks teeming with innovative spirit.
Charlottesville native venture capitalist James B. Murray Jr., a former Columbia Capital partner of Senator Mark Warner, was elected vice rector of the Board of Visitors, and will take the rector-in-waiting position July 1, when Frank M. “Rusty” Connor III begins a two-year term as rector.
And lest we forget, the UVA Foundation recently purchased the university a $9 million 2015 Cessna Citation XLS—an eight-seat, multi-engine jet—to haul around its highest rollers.
Jaffray Woodriff. Photo by Eze Amos
5. Jaffray Woodriff
As the founder of Quantitative Investment Management, a futures contract and stock trading firm with experience in plataforma trading, Woodriff has landed at No. 28 on Forbes’ list of the 40 highest-earning hedge fund managers in the nation, with total earnings of $90 million. His troupe of about 35 employees manage approximately $3.5 billion in assets through a data science approach to investing.
Woodriff, an angel investor who has funded more than 30 local startups, made headlines this year when he bought the Downtown Mall’s beloved ice skating rink and announced plans to turn Main Street Arena into the Charlottesville Technology Center, which, according to a press release, “will foster talented developers and energized entrepreneurs by creating office space conducive of collaboration, mentorship and the scalability of startups.”
Demolition of the ice rink is scheduled for 2018, so there’s time yet to lace up your skates before you trade them in for a thinking cap.
Keith Woodard. Photo by Amy Jackson
6. Keith Woodard
Some might argue that Woodard’s power stems from the unrelenting complaints of people who are towed from his two downtown parking lots. But it’s the real estate those lots sit on—and more. The owner of Woodard Properties has rentals for all needs, whether residential or commercial. The latter includes part of a Downtown Mall block and McIntire Plaza. He was already rich enough to invest in a Tesla, but Woodard is about to embark on the biggest project of his life—the $50 million West2nd, the former and future site of City Market. Ground will break any time now, and by 2019, the L-shaped, 10-story building with 65 condos, office and retail space (including a restaurant and bakery/café) and a plaza will dominate Water Street.
Will Richey. Photo by Amy Jackson
7. Will Richey
When you talk about Charlottesville’s ever-growing restaurant scene, one name that seems to be on everyone’s tongue is Will Richey. The restaurateur-turned-farmer (his Red Row Farm supplies much of the produce in the summer for the two Revolutionary Soup locations) owns a fair chunk of where you eat and drink in this town: Rev Soup, The Bebedero, The Whiskey Jar, The Alley Light, The Pie Chest and the newest addition, Brasserie Saison, which he opened in March with Hunter Smith (owner of Champion Brewery, which is also on the expansion train, see. No. 9). Richey’s restaurant empire seems to know no bounds, and we’re excited to see what else he’ll add to his plate—and ours—in the coming years.
Rosa Atkins. Photo by Eze Amos
8. Rosa Atkins/Pam Moran
The superintendents for city and county schools have a long list of achievements to their names, with each division winning a number of awards under their tenures.
This month, Atkins—the city school system’s leader since 2006—was named to the State Council of Higher Education, but she’s perhaps most notably the School Superintendents Association’s 2017 runner-up for national female superintendent of the year.
Pam Moran. Photo by Amy Jackson
Moran, who has ruled county schools since 2005, held a similar title in late 2015, when the Virginia Association of School Superintendents named her State Superintendent of the Year, which placed her in the running for the American Association of School Administrators’ National Superintendent of the Year award, for which she was one of four finalists. This year, she requested the School Board continue to fund enrollment increases for at-risk students, making closing learning opportunity gaps a high priority.
Hunter Smith. Photo by Amy Jackson
9. Local beer
Throw a rock in this area and you’ll hit a brewery. For one thing, the Brew Ridge Trail is continually dotted with more stops. And new breweries in the city just keep popping up: Reason Brewery, founded by Charlottesville natives and set to open next month on Route 29 near Costco, is the latest. Other local additions include Random Row Brewery, which opened last fall on Preston Avenue, and Hardywood, based out of Richmond, which opened a pilot brewery and taproom on West Main Street in April.
And local breweries are not just opening but they’re expanding: Three Notch’d and Champion both opened Richmond satellite locations within the last year (that marks Three Notch’d’s third location, with another in Harrisonburg). And what pairs better with good drinks than good eats? Champion is adding food to its Charlottesville menu, and its brewers are enjoying a Belgian-focused playground at the joint restaurant venture Brasserie Saison.
Another sure sign that craft beer is thriving is the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild’s annual beer competition, the Virginia Craft Beer Cup Awards, which is the largest state competition of its kind; this year, 356 beers in 24 categories were entered. And Charlottesville is the new home of the organization’s annual beer showcase, the Virginia Craft Brewers Fest, which is moving from Devils Backbone Brewing Company to the IX Art Park in August. Host of the event, featuring more than 100 Virginia breweries, will be Three Notch’d Brewing Company, which is expanding its brewing operations from Grady Avenue into a space at IX, set to open in 2018.
Amy Laufer. Publicity photo
10. Amy Laufer
With 46 percent of the vote in this month’s City Council Democratic primary and nearly $20,000 in donations, Laufer also had a lengthy list of endorsements, including governor hopeful Tom Perriello and former 5th District congressman L.F. Payne.
Laufer, a current school board member and former chair and vice chair of the board, is also the founder of Virginia’s List, a PAC that supports Democratic women running for state office. If she takes a seat on City Council, keep an eye out for the progress she makes on her top issues: workforce development, affordable housing and the environment.
Khizr Khan. Photo by Eze Amos
11. Khizr Khan
Khan launched the city into the international spotlight when he, accompanied by his wife, Ghazala, took the stage on the final day of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and harshly criticized several of then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s policies, including his proposed ban on Muslim immigration.
“Donald Trump, you’re asking Americans to trust you with their future,” Khan said. “Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of the law.’”
Khan could be seen shaking a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution at the camera—his face splayed across every major news network for days thereafter. At the convention, he discussed the death of his son, Humayun, a UVA graduate and former U.S. Army captain during the Iraq War, who died in an explosion in Baqubah, Iraq.
Khan also spoke before hundreds at Mayor Mike Signer’s January rally to declare Charlottesville a “capital of the resistance,” and Khan and his wife recently announced a Bicentennial Scholarship in memory of their son, which will award $10,000 annually to a student enrolled in ROTC or majoring in a field that studies the U.S. Constitution.
John Dewberry. Photo by Eze Amos
12. John Dewberry
Even though he doesn’t live around here, he’s from around here, if you stretch here to include Waynesboro. Dewberry continues to hold downtown hostage with the Landmark Hotel, although we have seen some movement since he was on last year’s power list. After buying the property in 2012, he said he’d get to work on the Landmark, the city’s most prominent eyesore since 2009, once he finished his luxury hotel in Charleston, South Carolina. That took a few years longer than anticipated—these things always do—but earlier this year Dewberry wrangled some tax incentives from City Council, which has threatened to condemn the structure, and on June 20, the Board of Architectural Review took a look at his new and improved plans. One of these days, Dewberry promises, Charlottesville will have a five-star hotel on the Downtown Mall.
13. Andrea Douglas
The Ph.D. in art history, who formerly worked at what’s now UVA’s Fralin Museum of Art, always seemed like the only real choice to head the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, and since it opened in 2012, she’s made it an integral part of the community. The heritage center is far from self-sustaining, but a $950,000 city grant, a fundraising campaign and Douglas’ steely determination keep the historic school—and its place in the city’s history—firmly in the heart of Charlottesville. And Douglas can get a seat at Bizou anytime she wants—she’s married to co-owner Vincent Derquenne.
Paul Beyer. Photo by Ryan Jones
14. Paul Beyer
Innovation wunderkind Beyer ups the stakes on his Tom Tom Founders Festival every year. The event began six years ago as a music-only festival, but has morphed into a twice-a-year celebration of creativity and entrepreneurism. The fall is dedicated to locals who have founded successful businesses/organizations, while the week-long spring event continues to draw some of the world’s biggest names in the fields of technology, art, music and more. This year’s spring fest, which added a featured Hometown Summit that drew hundreds of civic leaders and innovators from around the country to share their successes and brainstorm solutions to struggles, was the biggest yet: 44,925 program attendees, 334 speakers and 110 events.
Lynn Easton and Dean Porter Andrews. Photo by Jen Fariello
15. Easton Porter Group
We know them as local leaders in the weddings and hospitality industry (Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards is often the site of well-to-do weddings, with some totaling in
the $200,000s, we hear), but now the Easton Porter Group has its sights set on a much bigger portfolio: Its goal is to secure 15 luxury properties in high-end destinations in the next 10 years. In 2016, the group, owned by husband-and-wife team Dean Porter Andrews and Lynn Easton, landed on Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the nation.
Their latest project is to our north, with the renovation of the Blackthorne Inn outside of Washington, D.C., in Upperville, Virginia. The historic hunt-country estate, which is being transformed into a boutique inn featuring luxury-rustic accommodations, fine dining and wine, is projected to open in spring 2018.
The Easton Porter Group’s other businesses include Red Pump Kitchen on the Downtown Mall, as well as Cannon Green restaurant and the Zero George Hotel Restaurant + Bar in Charleston, South Carolina.
16. EPIC
Equity and Progress in Charlottesville made a poignant debut earlier this year, shortly after the death of former vice-mayor Holly Edwards, who was one of the founders of the group dedicated to involving those who usually aren’t part of the political process. It includes a few Democrats no longer satisfied with the party’s stranglehold on City Council, like former mayor Dave Norris and former councilor Dede Smith. The group has drawn a lot of interest in the post-Trump-election activist era, but its first two endorsements in the June 13 primary, Fenwick and commonwealth’s attorney candidate Jeff Fogel, did not fare well. The group still holds high hopes for Nikuyah Walker as an independent City Council candidate, and despite the primary setback, says Norris, “We may not have won this election, but we certainly influenced the debate.”
Dr. Neal Kassell. Courtesy photo
17. Dr. Neal Kassell
UVA’s Focused Ultrasound Center, the flagship center of its kind in the U.S., has had a banner year. The use of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound technology to treat tremors has moved from the research stage to becoming more commercialized for patient treatment. And we can thank Kassell, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, for placing our city in the neurological pioneering sphere.
Two months ago, the Clinical Research Forum named the center’s use of focused sound waves to treat essential tremor (the most common movement disorder) instead of requiring invasive incisions, as one of the top 10 clinical research achievements of 2016. And it can’t hurt to have someone as well-known as John Grisham in your corner. He wrote The Tumor, and the foundation, which works as a trusted third party between donors, doctors and research, distributed 800,000 copies.
Kassell is the author of more than 500 scientific papers and book chapters, and his research has been supported by more than $30 million in National Institutes of Health grants. In April 2016, he was named to the Blue Ribbon Panel of former vice president Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
18. Jody Kielbasa
Since Kielbasa came to town in 2009, he has continued to steer the Virginia Film Festival toward an ever-expanding arts presence in not only our community, but statewide as well. Last year’s festival featured more than 120 films and attracted big-name stars, including director Werner Herzog and Virginia’s own Shirley MacLaine. And Kielbasa expanded his own presence locally, as he was appointed UVA’s second vice provost for the arts in 2013, which places him squarely in the university’s arts fundraising initiatives. Last year there was talk of a group of arts sector powerhouses forming to lobby the city in an official capacity to gain more funding for local arts initiatives—no surprise that Kielbasa was among those mentioned.
Although Charlottesville has declared itself a Welcoming City, undocumented immigrants remain fearful of being deported from their new home, and others work behind the scenes to help them. Staff photo
The first time Maria’s husband was ticketed for driving without a license was after being stopped because of a broken taillight. The second instance occurred after he hit a deer.
Both Maria and her husband are undocumented immigrants living in Charlottesville. They settled here after fleeing their native El Salvador due to a civil war and the accompanying wave of gang violence that threatened their family’s lives.
In Charlottesville and Albemarle County, undocumented immigrants most often run into trouble with local governments over their lack of driver’s licenses. Absent a birth certificate, even the most competent driver cannot obtain a driver’s license in Virginia. This turns any minor traffic infraction into a potentially life-ruining event.
“I am always very scared, I live in fear every day,” says Maria. “Every day we leave the house, we don’t know what could happen.”
We all know Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States January 20. But since he was elected as president in an Electoral College win over Hillary Clinton’s popular vote victory, communities across America have been divided by how best to protect their immigrant populations. During his campaign, Trump promised to round up undocumented immigrants and block Muslims from entering the country in a manner that Eva Schloss, stepsister of Anne Frank, compared in Newsweek to Adolf Hitler’s purge of Jews from Germany.
One often-discussed option is the idea of becoming a sanctuary city. Sanctuary cities officially declare their refusal to gather information about the immigration status of people through traffic stops and other routine interactions between civilians and city employees. But Trump has pledged to cut off all federal funding to communities that become sanctuary cities. What would this mean for Charlottesville?
According to Charlottesville City Treasurer Jason Vandever, in fiscal year 2015 the city received $24,083,689 from the federal government, “both directly and passed through state agencies.” Roughly $10,532,325 was provided by the Department of Transportation alone. The Department of Agriculture contributed $2,712,498 for food assistance, including the school lunch program. And millions more are provided by the Department of Education, including $100,000 for adult English literacy and civics education intended to prepare immigrants for naturalization.
No president of the United States has the sole authority to suspend allocation of money previously budgeted by Congress to municipalities, including Charlottesville. But Trump has nevertheless insisted he will do this. With his party in control of majorities in the House and Senate and an anticipated majority on the Supreme Court, it isn’t clear that any legal violations by the administration would be met with consequences.
Maria taught math and physics in El Salvador, but her certification as a teacher, and as a competent driver, is not recognized in America. Here, she cleans houses. And she takes the bus everywhere because she is afraid of what might eventually happen if she drives a car.
If her husband is stopped a third time and charged for driving without a license, he will be taken to jail, and his immigration status could automatically be shared with federal authorities. That can result in being deported.
The means of deportation after arrest for driving without a license would typically be an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detainer. When a prisoner is about to be released from jail (after bail has been paid or the charges have been dismissed), federal immigration authorities are notified that an undocumented immigrant is being held in jail and will be out on a particular date.
Representatives of the Charlottesville and Albemarle County police departments have expressed in community workshops with Sin Barreras, a local nonprofit that provides services to undocumented immigrants in the Charlottesville community, that they do not want their officers to inquire as to the immigration status of people they come in contact with. But in practice, this unofficial policy has not always been followed.
“We know from the Hispanic community…there are officers who do not follow those informal policies and do ask immigration [questions] even though perhaps they shouldn’t,” says Frank Sullivan, a Sin Barreras board member. “We think it’s important, and we would encourage the city of Charlottesville, city managers and Board of Supervisors of Albemarle County that this will be a welcoming city, such as Santa Fe, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., where police have a policy not to ask immigration questions.”
Some of these cities, including Santa Fe and New York, have been unabashed about declaring themselves sanctuary cities. But these are cities in states that do not have Virginia’s Dillon Rule, a set of legal precedents that prevents Virginia municipalities from passing laws other than those from a set of options presented by the commonwealth’s government. New York City can levy an income tax, or nearly any other source of revenue it wishes, to compensate for lost federal or state income. Charlottesville cannot.
Undocumented issues
Sin Barreras was created five years ago and operated until 2016 as an all-volunteer organization (it now has one part-time paid staffer). In its tiny office on the second floor of the Jefferson School City Center, its members advise immigrants about legal matters, access to health care and any issues they have while trying to adjust to life in an unfamiliar country with a government they find difficult to understand. It is the only organization in Charlottesville devoted primarily to assisting undocumented immigrants—in 2015 Sin Barreras responded to 1,600 phone calls, including emergency calls late in the evening.
One call was from a Mexican woman who explained through tears that her son was taken from a court appearance directly to jail and she didn’t know where he was. The nonprofit used its contacts with the police to locate him, and assured the mother her son was well and would be home in four days. And the group has helped more than 200 people who were brought to the U.S. as children receive DACA status, a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit, through an Obama administration policy.
But the group’s No. 1 issue is undocumented immigrants’ lack of access to Virginia driver’s licenses. The commonwealth does not issue licenses to undocumented immigrants, even if they can pass a driving test and provide proof of identity through documents such as birth certificates, passports or driver’s licenses from their home countries. The lack of a driver’s license means that a bad bulb in a taillight or a missed turn signal can suddenly turn an ordinary trip to work into a nightmare. Driving without a license is illegal, and multiple offenses will result in a trip to jail, where ICE might intercept and deport them.
“I know that our jail board has taken a position that they won’t hold people on ICE detainers,” says Kristin Szakos, a Charlottesville city councilor. “They don’t have to—after their time is up, they are released.”
This means that the local jail releases immigrants immediately on a judge’s order, rather than holding them until federal authorities come to get them.
The Charlottesville City Council issued a proclamation on October 5, 2015, declaring itself a “welcoming city.” The proclamation establishes no specific policy responsibilities for the city or its employees. Curiously, Charlottesville is not listed as a participant on the website of Welcoming America, a nonprofit that sets standards and guidelines for what are formally considered to be welcoming cities.
Charlottesville’s ‘Welcoming City’ resolution
Advancing equity and inclusion is critical to the success of our community and our nation. Our diversity is the source of our pride and our prosperity.
As political rhetoric on the national level has become heated and divisive, and with an increase in hateful and dangerous speech and acts locally and nationwide, many of our neighbors have experienced fear and anxiety.
At this time we must strongly reaffirm our commitment to diversity and to fostering an atmosphere of inclusion.
We reject hate speech, hate crimes, harassment, racial bias, homophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti immigrant discrimination, and harmful bias and discrimination in all forms.
We welcome all people and recognize the rights of individuals to live their lives with dignity, free of fear and discrimination because of their faith, race, sexual orientation or identity, national origin or immigration status.
We believe the public sector has a critical role in ensuring the public good and pledge to continue our work in making our services and programs accessible and open to all.
Even Welcoming America’s technical standards for a “welcoming city” are a bit hazy. The group calls for tolerance, access to local government services and a general feeling of inclusiveness toward newcomers. A search of its website for the words “ICE detainer” yields zero results. The phrase “driver’s license” only appears once in its digital archives. Welcoming cities generally seek to foster inclusiveness in their community but stop short of formally refusing to cooperate with ICE to provide information about the presence of immigrants. Sanctuary cities go farther than mere inclusiveness.
“One of the things we have done with our welcoming city declaration is just making sure that people understand that we value immigrants and [we] want to make sure that people feel safe and welcome here, but I don’t know that we have a lot of particular policies around that,” Szakos says.
Future concerns
The consequences of falling afoul of federal authorities for a minor offense are major. Fanny Smedile, a legal immigrant from Central America and president of Sin Barreras, has an adult son who remained undocumented. In tears, she says her son was captured by federal agents and deported to Panama, a country unfamiliar to him since childhood. She has visited him periodically in Panama since his deportation.
Maria says her children—only one of whom has technical citizenship— strive to be good citizens.
“We have a lot of gratitude toward the United States,” she says. “My children give back. They are volunteers. They are bilingual. They speak English and Spanish perfectly. They volunteer at hospitals. They actually volunteer giving out food at the church. I’m very proud of it. They speak for a lot of the Hispanic population that really has a lot of gratitude toward America and what they’ve done for us.
“My youngest child is actually American-born. A U.S. citizen,” says Maria. “However, it would throw things off tremendously if I were to be deported. Who would take care of this child? Would I have to bring him back to a culture of poverty and violence? If not, would I leave him here to be a ward of the state? It’s an impossible dilemma by not having legal status.”
She says that as a family they are already feeling the effects. Her 11-year-old hears comments in school about Trump. “Now he worries, ‘What are going to happen to my parents?’” Maria says. “‘Are they going to be deported?’”
“Our former mayor was an immigrant,” says Szakos. “This is a community that has 60 languages being spoken at home. …My daughter is a soccer player and one of her best friends is from Somalia. And it broadens the perspective of our citizens, and I use that ‘citizens’ [as] specifically city citizens instead of legalized citizens. It enriches us and gives us a broader global perspective.”
While Szakos worries about the children of undocumented immigrants, she also worries about other local residents who depend on some of that $24 million in federal funding to Charlottesville for social services that Trump has threatened to cut off.
“There are potential downsides. Technically, [being a sanctuary city is] not legal. And the president-elect has threatened to cut off all federal funding to cities that declare themselves welcoming cities. A lot of cities in the country are sanctuary cities by practice, if not by naming, so it’s going to take some work to figure out exactly what he meant,” she says. “…One of my concerns is that a lot of federal funding that comes into Charlottesville is used to provide programs that support our most vulnerable residents, and I don’t want to endanger that.”
The stakes might be more than just the well-being of vulnerable citizens—law and order is also an issue. A combination of the language barrier and fear of deportation makes many immigrants Smedile serves fearful of contacting the police to report a crime or seek help.
“They are afraid when there is a crime and they are witnesses,” says Smedile. “They don’t like to be involved because they are undocumented. They don’t want anything with the court or anything with the police. Sometimes they don’t say what did they see. In an accident or a fight or whatever it is. …Of course the police, they want to come talk to them and protect them, but it’s not easy.”
All of the immigrants and their advocates interviewed for this article agreed that getting pulled over without a driver’s license is the leading local cause of deportation. But data in government computers could theoretically be used to identify undocumented immigrants. Social services reports often include that information, and health records may also include clues.
Szakos thinks that federal law should prevent the city’s data from being taken by ICE and combed through for the names of immigrants.
“I’m not sure which laws are which, but HIPAA [the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] is one of the things that has to do with health-related data,” Szakos says. “There are various federal regulations that govern the privacy of data being held by social services agencies. So that individual records can’t be held by other agencies except under certain circumstances. …As far as I know there’s pretty rigid protections on the data.”
Asked what she would like from the city of Charlottesville, Maria had a quick answer through an interpreter.
“To give us a chance,” Maria says. “To have the rights that most people have in this country. We’re honest. We’re looking to work. We came from a culture of violence and poverty. We found refuge here in the United States and so have our children.” She also asked for the possibility of getting a legal work permit and being able to obtain a driver’s license.
To make ends meet, Maria also works a part-time job in a restaurant. On one occasion, a customer said, “What are you doing here? Go back to Mexico. This job belongs to someone American-born.” She wanted to cry. She lives in a neighborhood filled with other Hispanic immigrants. Her neighbors have told her they have experienced discrimination at work sites. American co-workers have said to them, “After the 20th, time’s up! You’re out of here!”
“That’s the time we need to be even more united, when we’re being ostracized,” Maria says. “To prove we don’t retaliate with violence. We go back to our foundation of Christianity and Catholicism and we rest on that and hope to turn people’s hearts by not reacting to the discrimination that we experience.”
The monetary price of resisting Trump’s demands in Charlottesville could be in the tens of millions of dollars. But when asked whether the dollar value is worth the effort, Smedile does not hesitate to answer.
“We are human beings,” she says. “That’s what we have to think about.”
