Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 15, 2005

A delegation of business leaders from the Herndon Dulles Chamber of Commerce trekked to Capitol Hill this week to talk about immigration policy, advocating an expanded guest-worker program as well as increased security measures at the nation's borders.

"We saw the problem, and we decided that immigration is something we would like to take on," said Eileen Curtis, the group's president and chief executive.

Herndon has become a focal point for immigration activists of all stripes, ever since the town of 22,000 in western Fairfax County began deliberations earlier this year over whether to locate a publicly funded center for day laborers, some of whom are undocumented, near the Loudoun County border. The center was scheduled to begin operating this week.

The debate over day laborers has roiled Herndon and attracted national attention from organizations such as the National Council of La Raza, which advocates for Hispanics, and the Minuteman Project, which works to combat illegal immigration in part by using cameras and other techniques to monitor the comings and goings of laborers as well as contractors and homeowners who hire them.

Curtis and her fellow business community emissaries decided to steer clear of the local day-laborer debate.

For instance, when meeting with Northern Virginia Republican Reps. Frank R. Wolf and Thomas M. Davis III, they focused on an immigration bill sponsored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) that would clamp down on the hiring of undocumented workers.

The Herndon Dulles chamber has not taken a position on the day-laborer center, Curtis said, because the local decision making has mostly centered on land use.

Plus, she said, "typically, we're the glue that ties the community together," and the chamber doesn't want to show any preference toward local businesses that might or might not choose to hire the day workers.

"The feeling of some of our board members is that we should not assume a direct corollary between the two," Curtis said. "We wanted to treat them as two separate issues."

Curtis said that she believes some type of guest-worker program is crucial to keeping the western Fairfax economy booming. "In order to sustain the vitality of the community, you have to have a sufficient workforce," she said.

A majority of small-business owners in Virginia reported business conditions as "good" and were optimistic about healthy sales and profits, according to a report released last week by the Virginia chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Sixty-one percent of those surveyed had a "good" outlook for business over the next three months, but that number was slightly lower than small businesses polled in Maryland. "Small-business owners in Virginia are faring well overall in today's economy, but they're not as optimistic in this post-Katrina environment," said NFIB's Virginia state director, Gordon Dixon, in a statement released with the poll.

Kenneth Lew has been promoted to managing director of Reston-based Noblestar, an internet technology management consulting firm.

Gregory S. Capella has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of McLean-based InfoPro, a government contractor that provides technology and software services.

Have news about business in Fairfax County? Send an e-mail tosilvermane@washpost.comor call 703-383-5103.