Harmony Is Found on a Divisive Issue
By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 9, 2006
A regional meeting on an issue that has sparked heated debate in Herndon and other spots across the nation -- day labor -- ended in consensus last week.
Officials from 10 Virginia and Maryland jurisdictions pledged to support hiring centers as a way to manage day laborers, and they denounced proposed federal legislation that would tighten penalties for illegal immigrants.
"This debate has not really been a debate," said George L. Leventhal, president of the Montgomery County Council (D-At Large). "It's been an affinity group."
About 50 people attended the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' second conference on day laborers, an issue that exploded last summer when Herndon officials considered -- and ultimately backed -- a publicly funded hiring center for day workers. The first meeting was in November.
Elected officials and representatives of social service agencies heard presentations from managers of hiring centers in Arlington, suburban Maryland and the San Francisco Bay area. And they discussed community opposition, which continues to simmer in Herndon.
Several said local officials could not solve problems stemming from day-labor soliciting. They said that, like traffic congestion or air pollution, it is an issue that can only be managed.
"At a basic level, there's a bunch of people who need work, and there's a bunch of people who want them to work for them," said Chris Zimmerman (D), chairman of the Arlington County Board. Arlington has one regulated hiring center for day laborers. "Our experience shows it's better to have an organized site than not to have one."
That approach is not always popular, officials acknowledged. Fairfax County Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason) said some constituents, after learning that she backed the county's allocation of $400,000 to help fund projects to assist day laborers, have told her that they would rather see the county do nothing for them.
Herndon Mayor Michael L. O'Reilly said the town was trying to mollify residents by monitoring complaints about trespassing, which some residents had feared would increase in neighborhoods near the hiring center.
He said he knows that some residents will never support the center -- even though, he said, it has gotten day laborers to abandon a gathering spot near a 7-Eleven and subdued community tensions somewhat.
"I can say we're much more civil in Herndon than we were last July and August," O'Reilly said, referring to the divisive public hearings and protests triggered by the Town Council's deliberations over a day-laborer job center.
Although the topic of the conference was day laborers, the debate in Congress over illegal immigration was the backdrop.
Participants agreed to have the council's Human Services Policy Committee draft resolutions backing day-laborer centers and rejecting federal legislation that would make it a felony to be in the country illegally, which they said would only push such immigrants further out of public view.
"What we're simply trying to find are constructive ways to manage a real situation in our community," said Arlington board member Walter Tejada (D).
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