Culpeper rules out day-labor center


November 25, 2007


By Seth McLaughlin - The Culpeper Town Council's public safety committee Tuesday is expected to decide how to address a growing problem with Hispanic day laborers after the owner of a shopping center hired security guards to remove the men who gathered there looking for work.

But some on the nine-member Town Council say one alternative not being considered is a day-labor center.

"There is no push I am aware of for a day-labor center," said council member James Risner.

Council member F. Steven Jenkins said he will not support "one single penny of American taxpayer money" paying for a day-labor site, which some say would attract illegal aliens in search of work.

Culpeper, a town of 15,000 people located about 70 miles from the District, has seen an influx of day laborers, a result in large part of a spike in residential development.

For more than three years, people seeking work gathered at the Culpeper Town Square shopping center. That ended Monday after a recently hired security officer kicked the day laborers out of the center's parking lot

"My goal all along has been to have a situation whereby the loitering and nuisance that has existed there for 3½ years ended," Mr. Jenkins said. "That type of gathering and hanging out is not wanted. If they choose to go to another private property, I would hope that property owner would do the same thing."

Now day laborers are scattered in smaller groups across the street from the shopping center along a four-lane highway and in front of a local business, sparking public-safety concerns.

"Moving the day laborers out of the parking lot has moved them out into a roadway where they are a danger to themselves and others," Mr. Risner said. "I don't know what the answer is right now."

The town's public safety committee, which Mr. Risner serves on, and the police chief on Tuesday will mull over whether the town needs to do more to increase public safety.

The odds are the public-safety issues will resolve themselves over time, Mr. Risner said.

"I think the people hiring the [day laborers] and the [day laborers] will figure out a safe place to meet," he said. But he added, "I am sure this is not the end of it."

The growing region is no stranger to addressing issues related to illegal aliens.

The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors this year spearheaded the creation of a coalition of towns to collectively address problems associated with illegal aliens.

The Culpeper Town Council this month joined more than 20 other localities already involved in the initiative, exploring the effect illegal aliens have on employment, housing, schools, hospitals and medical care, social services and transportation.

Culpeper County officials also passed a resolution this summer declaring English as the county's official language. The Code of Virginia includes a provision declaring English as the commonwealth's official language.

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