Thread: VA-Herndon seeks illegal immigrant hiring injunction

Herndon seeks illegal immigrant hiring injunction
Fairfax County
By Gregg MacDonald

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 2009

A little more than two years after its anti-solicitation ordinance aimed at keeping day laborers off the streets was ruled unconstitutional by a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge, the Town of Herndon is pursuing another creative legal maneuver in hopes of forcing workers outside its limits.

On Aug. 29, 2007, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Leslie M. Alden ruled that a controversial ordinance — enacted by the Town in 2005 — was not permissible under Virginia law.

The ordinance, which was originally initiated in conjunction with the opening of an official day labor center, prohibited anyone from soliciting work or hiring a laborer on public property elsewhere in the town.

The unconstitutionality of the ordinance was soon followed by the closing of the official labor center. Since then, some ad hoc hiring sites sprung up within the town, much to the dismay of the mayor and the majority of the Town Council.

This month, Mayor Steve DeBenedittis drafted a letter to state Del. Tom Rust (R-Herndon) asking him to seek an opinion from Virginia Attorney General Bill Mims on a new plan to send many of the workers outside town limits.

“The Town of Herndon for the last seven years has been dealing with the issues raised by unregulated day workers gathering in the Herndon community,â€

It is so pathetic how they have managed to keep towns from enforcing state or federal law...this is unconstitutional....we definitely have a huge problem with the DOJ.

It would be so much simpler if the Gov't would just enforce our immigration laws.