Blogger Attacks Council Member Days Before Convention

A local community blog is alleging that a Manassas City council member up for re-election this year employed an illegal immigrant.

The Virginia Virtucon posted Monday that Manassas City Council member Mark Wolfe, who serves as the executive director of the Manassas Ballet Theater Company, knowingly employed a Russian immigrant with a non-compliant immigration status as a dancer at the local theater.

at this weekend's convention and is being scrutinized for continuing to allow the dancer to perform and receive monetary compensation from the local ballet company even after his Visa expired and a petition for non-immigrant worker status by the theatre was denied.

Wolfe said in a phone conversation Thursday that the allegations are not true and surfaced at a very "convenient time" prior to the weekend convention when nominees for three council seats will be selected for the May 2012 general election. 

The dancer is question was not illegal at any point of time he was affiliated with the ballet company, Wolfe said.

Wolfe said that he goes above and beyond what is required to check the immigration status of his employees through E-verify and has sought illegal immigration reform for Virginia. 

"Time for Virginia to step up on this. I'm tired of loosing business and money to firms who rely on illegal labor," Wolfe wrote on his Facebook wall in May.