Day Laborers Enter Fray Over Job Site

A proposal to designate a tax-supported site where day laborers could gather to seek jobs in an orderly manner drew hundreds of angry residents to a hearing in Herndon last night, protesting that the plan would attract more undocumented immigrants to the area.

When the hearing was suspended about 1 a.m. today, about 30 or 40 of the 109 people who had signed up to speak had addressed the Planning Commission. They voiced strong opinions on both sides of the issue.

"All of you have very nice houses," said Neddy Vargas, 25, in Spanish. The "majority of the people who built these houses have been those people you are calling illegal," said Vargas, who identified himself as a day laborer.

Kathleen Paul, whose house abuts the proposed site, said five of the 30 houses on her street are for sale, but prospective buyers are not being brought to see them. "You are putting our families and our property values in jeopardy," she said.

Officials said they will resume the session tomorrow evening.

Earlier, several day laborers, whom activists had encouraged to attend to put a human face on the emotional issue, walked into the town's municipal center past demonstrators waving placards. As they have done previously, opponents of the proposed site wore white paper stars bearing a red slash through the words "Day Labor sites."

"It's an illegal alien welcoming center," said James McDonald, a lawyer from Springfield who came to Herndon last night to protest the plan. He said the husband of a client was fatally shot by a man in the country illegally. "This site says it's okay to be illegal," he said.

At the meeting, the town's staff recommended that the proposed site, off Herndon Parkway, operate seven days a week, from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. with a 150--person limit. Trespassing on private property while going to or from the site would be prohibited under the staff recommendation.

Even before the hearing, people on each side of the issue had a shouting battle. As one side chanted "We want justice now" and "We are not criminals," the other side shouted: "Enforce our laws."

This was the second time in three weeks that the Planning Commission has heard public comments on the issue, which has become a proxy for the national debate on immigration policy. Groups dedicated to tougher border controls already have said they will sue if the town establishes the site.

Proponents of the plan say creating a designated day-laborer site is the only way to legally ban an informal site that has sprung up around a 7-Eleven parking lot on Elden Street and draws up to 150 Latino men every morning. A more decorous, managed site would be better for both the town and the laborers, they say.