Herndon, VA passed an anti-solicitation ordinance because they didn’t want Latino workers congregating at the 7-11 as day laborers.
Because these ordinances have been ruled in violation of First Amendment freedom of speech rights, any municipality passing such a law must provide another equivalent venue for expression. So, some folks opened a day-laborer center, which I’m presuming operated like a non-union hall where workers could be hired. In addition, there were English classes and civic training offered. This sounds like a good plan, helping people become assimilated into the mainstream workforce, and not hanging around in a parking lot.
But, it has been shut down, in part because the folks in Herndon don’t want it there, and because it wasn’t equally accessible to illegal immigrants. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Leslie Alden said:
Wait a minute. It’s illegal to hire illegal immigrants. So rather than maintaining a program which benefits the legal immigrants (who are now citizen taxpayers), let’s screw them, because the illegals didn’t get in on it? Punish the people who went through the proper channels, so the folks who shouldn’t be here in the first place aren’t disenfranchised? :dubious:
Restricting the hiring hall to legal workers does not deny illegal workers “equal protection of the law”. The fact that a single crackpot judge thinks it does, does not mean it would be upheld by a higher court.
In this case, all workers in the hiring hall are subject to the same laws regarding immigration status and work eligibility. However, one could make a case that a high-tech worker from India who is deported for overstaying his visa is not being treated the same as an illegal day laborer who is allowed to work.
Yep, on the corner of Elden and Alabama. I live 5 minutes away by foot.
Well, hold on a sec. There is more to this story, and you’re presuming untruths. “Some folks” didn’t open the day laborer center. The town did. The “center” they received was an old police station and barracks. Some of the laborers actually LIVE there. Guess who pays for it to be heated? Guess who pays for their coffee? The residents of the Town of Herndon (me). The problem is that no one knows who’s legal and who’s not. Regardless of their status, they all show up to the police barracks every morning looking to be picked up by contractors for work that day. This is in response to there being 300-400 people hanging around the 7-11 every morning. Said contractors pick them up and don’t bother checking their immigration status. Authorities look the other way because that’s what a judge imposed. I know many of them and this is exactly how it works.
A major point of contention with the residents of Herndon is that it’s expensive as hell to live here and buy a home. I’m currently looking for a house and I can get a sweet 2BR split-entry for $500k. :rolleyes: The problem with day laborers is that they will live 15 to a house in a typical cul-de-sac neighborhood and turn it into an all night party-zone. I’ve looked at some real nice places only to see the house next door or across the street have 4 or 5 white vans parked in the driveway or on the street. Those are the new immigrants’ work vehicles; it’s not that they’re working, it’s where they live – a couple realtors explained this to me and it’s one of the reasons why they’re having a difficult time selling homes in Herndon.
I seriously doubt any legal inmigrants are queueing up outside 7/11 for work. Legal inmigrants are usually wealthy, they don’t give work visas to day laborers.
Say what you please, it is utterly insane to insist that illegal aliens should have the same rights as citizens and legal residents. When liberals try to blur the distinction between citizen and non-citizen, they are undermining the very concept of community.
A community that doesn’t exclude anybody doesn’t really include anybody.
Here’s one interpretation. If it is possible to be inside the community, it must be possible to be outside the community. If it is not possible to be outside the community, then there is no line of demarcation, and “inside the community” becomes meaningless.
I would have phrased it a little differently. More like “A community that excludes no one is not a community at all.”
So, someone who lives near you, mows your lawn, whose kids go to school with your kids, etc., isn’t part of your community? I would say that when conservatives try to emphasize the distinction between citizen and non-citizen, they are undermining the very concept of community. One geographer, Robert Sack, has written more thoughtfully than some on this idea – that good things can happen when people get together to create a place. You can advocate excluding whom you want, but you might want to examine how the people you would exclude are already contrubuting to the success of that place.
So you’re saying that I don’t belong to my local community? I work here, own a house here, recreate here, shop here, pay federal, state and city taxes – all that I lack is a certificate saying that I’ve become a US citizen?
Clearly some rights are reserved to citizens, like voting. But many of the amendments to the Constitution distinguish between “citizens” and “the people” or “any person.” Such as the 14th Amendment:
If the Constitution says that no person may be denied equal protection of the laws, I’m not sure on what basis you seem to be arguing that only citizens should not be denied equal protection of the laws.