Herndon Could Tighten Screws On Day Laborers

Workers gathered on Alabama Drive, hoping to get offers from contractors, after Herndon closed its center for day laborers last year. (By Carol Guzy -- The Washington Post)
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The measures being considered may have problems. Alcohol sales are regulated by the Virginia Department of Alcohol Beverage Control, and pay phones are installed by private companies. The town attorney has advised officials not to adopt a new anti-solicitation ordinance, warning that it might not hold up in court without action by the Virginia General Assembly.

Then there is the question of whether the measures would have the intended effect.

"Cities that have tried to use criminal enforcement measures to rid their town of day laborers have never succeeded," Newman said. "First, the methods they've used have run afoul of the constitution. Second, as a practical matter, they haven't worked."

On a recent morning, about 50 men lingered on the sidewalks and in the parking lots in Herndon's busy commercial corridor along Elden Street, hoping to be picked up by a contractor in need of a day's labor. Their presence there has persisted despite close surveillance by police and a drop-off in the number of construction jobs in recent months.

Employers "know we are here," said Ruben Perez, 38, an immigrant from Guatemala in a paint-spattered red T-shirt who was standing on the sidewalk outside a Shell gas station. "If we go some other place, maybe they don't find us."

Longtime residents and anti-illegal-immigrant activists say it is worth the effort to discourage illegal immigration. George Taplin, who founded a Virginia chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps to protest the day laborer job center, praised the Town Council for continuing to devise ways to expel the workers.

In large part, the proposals require the town to enforce laws that are on the books, he said. If the town does so, perhaps the workers will move on to some other community.

"If people choose to stand on a corner and offer their services for work, and people from outside of Herndon come and hire them, there isn't a lot we can do in terms of that part of the mix," he said. "But what we can do is make it difficult, unfeasible, for people to stand around on sidewalks in Herndon."