The Herndon Town Council on Wednesday renewed a permit that will allow its controversial day labor center to stay open until a new operator who will check immigration status can be found.
In a 6-1 vote, the council paved the way for an “Operator B” who will take over the center from Reston Interfaith, a group that has refused to check the legal status of the laborers.
The council could soon consider the single bid now before it — a proposal from Dennis “Butch” Baughan, who has promised to perform the checks. The permit also allows the town to take over the site if that proposal falls through.
The council, which was scheduled to vote on renewing the site’s permit Tuesday, postponed the decision by a day after dozens of speakers extended the meeting late into the evening.
Some urged the council to keep the center open and retain Reston Interfaith as the operator. Lawyer Daniel Choi argued it is the national immigration system that is broken, not the day labor center.
“If you don’t want people out on the streets, you give them a place to work,” he said.
Others registered their disgust that the site was ever opened to begin with and pushed for its termination. Herndon resident Aubrey Stokes called it a “failed social engineering project” and said he wanted it shut down because of “blatant illegalities.”
The new council has been trying all year to secure a new operator for the site who would check the immigration status of the workers there, a move that would dramatically alter the nature of the center and likely thrust many of the workers back out into the community.
Still unclear is how Wednesday’s vote will affect Herndon’s anti-solicitation ordinance, which withstood a legal challenge based on the fact that the laborers would have some place to gather.
