The way Greg Stone sees it, opposing Herndon’s day labor center isn’t about race. It’s not even about immigration.
“It’s an issue of compassion,” the 48-year-old Sterling resident said.
For Stone, standing in one of two divided crowds outside the Herndon Town Council chambers Tuesday, compassion needs to be shown for taxpayers of western Fairfax and Loudoun counties who should be relieved of the burden of paying for services for illegal immigrants.
But that point of view was in sharp contrast to the way things were seen in the other gathering outside the council chambers Tuesday.
Augusto Hernandez, a 37-year-old day laborer who moved from Mexico seven years ago, believes compassion would be shown by keeping open a place for laborers to congregate. He said closing the center or adding the new legal-status restrictions would simply drive laborers back out into Herndon.
“That would be exactly what would happen if they close the center,” he said through a translator. “It would be a problem not only for us but for the town and the contractors.”
Stone and others who shared his view showed up at the council building Tuesday to be part of a debate over whether to shut down the day labor site, which was created two years ago to consolidate laborers and connect them with employers. He supports — as does the town council — new regulations that would allow only those legally able to work in the U.S. to gather there.
An equally passionate group joined Hernandez in opposing the closure.
The council, much of which was elected last year opposing the day labor site, was set to weigh both renewing the site’s permit and adopting a new bid from a contractor who has promised to check legal status.
As of late Tuesday, no decision had been reached. The debate drew crowds on both sides, including anti-illegal-immigrant groups Help Save Herndon and Help Save Loudoun, of which Stone is a member.
