Herndon officials have agreed to push for legislation to license and regulate employers who hire day laborers, the latest move in a campaign to crack down on illegal immigrants in the community.
The Town Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday to approve a legislative packet that, if adopted by the General Assembly, would regulate the employers who make use of the controversial day laborer center approved by a prior Council. The decision is part of a larger push against illegal immigrants by new Council members, some of whom were elected this year as opponents of the site.
State law already makes it a crime to hire illegal immigrants, though that law is invalidated by federal statutes, some argue. Town Attorney Richard Kaufman said the proposed legislation would “perfect language in the [state] bill” to ensure that contractors can hire only those legally allowed to work in the United States.
“The state authorities are not enforcing it because they believe it’s pre-empted by federal law,” Kaufman told The Examiner on Wednesday. But Council Member J. Harlon Reece, the lone dissenter, is skeptical that the new legal language can skirt federal law.
“I just don’t think we’re on sound legal ground,” he said.
“I’m not opposed to the local community getting involved in dealing with this problem,” he later said. “But I just feel we have to deal with it in a practical manner. And I don’t think we do our community any good by getting involved in legislation that could involve us in some sort of litigation.”
Herndon’s population is about 25 percent Hispanic.
