Herndon officials plan to shut down a labor center that has for two years divided the small town and become a national focal point in the debate over illegal immigration. The decision throws into question the future of the Hispanic day workers who gather at the site to find employment.
Mayor Stephen DeBenedittis announced the decision at a Wednesday news conference, saying the Sterling Road center, run by Reston Interfaith, would cease operations Sept. 14 and remain closed while the town reviews a bid from a new operator who has promised to check the immigration status of the workers.
That bid, however, is mired in delays and could still prove unworkable. Critics say such checks would drive the workers back into the streets and reignite a public problem the center was created to solve.
DeBenedittis blamed “the failure of the federal government to enforce its own laws” for the situation.
“[Herndon has] always been a diverse town, it’s always been a welcoming town,” he said. “I still believe that’s true.”
He also announced that town legal staff will not appeal a recent Fairfax County Circuit Court ruling that invalidated Herndon’s anti-solicitation ordinance. The ordinance, which prevented employers from seeking day laborers anywhere but the center, was upheld by a District Court judge contingent on the existence of the center. But after that ruling was appealed to Circuit Court and overturned, Herndon officials no longer had the legal incentive to keep the site open.
Officials have said they plan to wield existing zoning law to keep informal labor sites from cropping up throughout the town, though that strategy might draw its own challenges in court and run afoul of the same problems that sunk the anti-solicitation ordinance.
Bill Threlkeld, director of the day labor center, called that plan “misguided” and said it could create a new problem by spreading out workers who are afraid of gathering en masse.
“Why would it be smart for a community to have workers spread out over the sidewalk?” he asked.
The decision represents a turning point for a council that was elected largely on its opposition to the center, an election that followed a rush of international attention — and flood of criticism from opponents of illegal immigration — on the prior council after it created the facility in 2005.
