The American Civil Liberties Union has backed down from its legal threats against Herndon after the city amended an ordinance aimed at curbing day laborers from seeking work along roadways.
The law, which originally prohibited solicitations not only from streets, but also from sidewalks and adjacent grassy areas, was amended to pertain to streets alone. The ACLU and other immigrant rights groups alleged that the law had less to do with street safety, as the Herndon Town Council insists, and more to do with discrimination against the mostly-Hispanic day laborers.
The ardently color-blind ACLU all but encouraged day laborers of every stripe to make their way to Herndon.
“We would have preferred that Herndon just drop the ordinance altogether,” said Kent Willis, executive director of ACLU of Virginia. As amended, however, “it is clear that day laborers — of all colors and nationalities, we hope — can exercise their free speech rights on all public sidewalks in Herndon.”
