The times, they are a changin’: Demographic Shifts Provoke responses Near Nation’s Capitol

The area surrounding Washington D.C. is seeing a great amount of immigration — and at times a not-so-kindly response (as in Prince William County).  Similar to th eregulation of taco trucks, which is occurring in cities across the country (most recently, New Orleans), the Manassas (Virginia) City Council is considering limits on street peddlers, which amounts to a subplot in a larger regional controversy over proposals to restrict illegal immigration . This summer, city officials began to receive complaints about certain vendors who push freezer carts full of popsicles or other frozen novelties through the city. According to the Washington Post (here), “[m]any of the vendors happened to be Hispanic . . . .”

Prince George’s, a county in Maryland that underwent a seismic population shift a generation ago as it became the nation’s wealthiest majority-black suburb, is seeing a demographic change as working class Latinos are moving there.

KJ