Thread: VA: Herndon threatens to ban illegal immigrants from day lab

Herndon threatens to ban illegal immigrants from day labor site




Associated Press - August 4, 2007 12:05 AM ET

HERNDON, Va. (AP) - Officials in Herndon are considering closing the town's day labor center or forbidding illegal immigrants to look for work there.

Herndon's day-laborer center is 1 of a few in the DC area. The town council will meet August 14th to decide. It's operated by a religious group that doesn't check the laborers' legal status. But the town is looking for an operator that will make those checks.

Activists held a rally last night to support the center.

Officials in neighboring Loudoun County say they might open a center of their own if the one in Herndon changes. County supervisors say it might be a way to protect the county from legal challenges to its efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants by giving workers an alternative place to gather.

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=6885758

Loudoun Awaits Fate of Herndon Center
County Might Open Facility if Town Bans Illegal Immigrants From Seeking Work

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 4, 2007; B05



Loudoun County might open a job center for day laborers if a controversial one in nearby Herndon bans illegal immigrants, officials said yesterday.

Herndon's day-laborer center, one of a handful in the Washington area, is across the Loudoun line. Loudoun officials say they fear that if the Herndon Town Council decides this month to keep the center open but check workers' immigration status, dozens of illegal workers could flood across the border and gather on public streets to look for work.

Loudoun doesn't want to attract the workers rejected by the Herndon center; rather, two Loudoun officials considering the proposal for a job center say it would be a way to protect the county from legal challenges to its efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

Supervisors Scott K. York (I) and Stephen J. Snow (R-Dulles) said they want the county board to approve anti-solicitation laws that would ban illegal workers from gathering in public areas in Loudoun. But because such laws have been challenged in court, an official day-laborer center in Loudoun could give workers an alternative place to gather, which could protect the county from such challenges, they said.

"If we're going to go forward and solve what we believe will be a problem created by Herndon, to solve that problem we would have to pass an ordinance," York said. "To have the ordinance stand up in court, we'd have to have a site."

York and Snow said they are not advocating a center but think it could be a tool in their efforts to make Loudoun inhospitable to illegal immigrants. Last month, Loudoun joined Prince William County in passing a resolution promising to cut off public services where possible and increase cooperation between law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.

The two supervisors said they would only support a Loudoun center if the Herndon council votes Aug. 14 to change or close its center, if the site does not require taxpayer money and if it is open only to legal residents.

The Herndon Official Workers Center has been controversial since it opened in 2005. Reston Interfaith, a group of religious institutions that operates the center, does not check the legal status of people who go there to connect with employers needing short-term labor.

About 120 workers gather each morning to find work at the center. Although no one is sure how many are illegal, a 2003 Fairfax County survey found that about 85 percent of day laborers there were undocumented.

Herndon has been searching for months for an operator that would be willing to make sure the clients are legal, which Reston Interfaith says is not part of its mission. The town is in talks with a possible operator, Vice Mayor Dennis D. Husch said.

Some Loudoun officials were stunned yesterday to learn that some of their colleagues would consider such a controversial type of facility.

"I'm not thrilled with the idea, and I think the best way to deal with this problem would be to crack down on the businesses that are hiring these people in the first place," Supervisor Mick Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run) said.

Some immigrant advocates said the idea of creating a day-laborer site to crack down on illegal immigrants seems underhanded.

"If the county wants to be an immigration officer, just come out and say it. Just be clear," said Laura Valle, executive director of La Voz of Loudoun, a Hispanic advocacy group. "Why do they have to set up a day-labor site as an excuse to do that?"

Last night, about 200 activists and immigrants gathered at Alabama Drive Park in Herndon in support of the town's day-laborer site. A march and vigil were held in conjunction with a national conference of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network this weekend in Silver Spring.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01997.html

Loudoun doesn't want to attract the workers rejected by the Herndon center; rather, two Loudoun officials considering the proposal for a job center say it would be a way to protect the county from legal challenges to its efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

Another way to protect itself from a legal challenge would be for congress to pass legislation that will empower communites to defend themselves against the invasion.

I moved to the DC area just over a year ago from upstate NY. I came in seach of management opportunity. I am so disgusted with the state of the industry here that I am leaving! I have worked on numerous projects with immigrants, legal and otherwise, that seem to have no interest in learning english or becoming citizens. They brag about working here for ten years and moving back home with enough money to "retire". I have been told to learn to speak spanish to communicate with the people who are working for me! I feel like I'm working in a third world nation, not the nations capital! I look around the area and see the end of the US as we know it....a US flooded with undereducated people who have no interest in making the US better. God help us.

Welcome ContractorTom!
Interesting comments re your experience.
Good luck with your career search and hope you will stick around with us.