| Rule
of Law Alive in Herndon |
| Well, Hallellujia. |
| Herndon finally got an official opinion on whether the way
it has chosen to deal with the day laborers is a good idea
or a bad one. |
| It was a judicial opinion, actually. A Fairfax County judge
declared last week that the town's ordinance which prohibits
people from soliciting work on the streets is only constitutional
because anyone may solicit work at the official day labor
site. |
| Essentially, the judge's opinion is the first judicial ruling
on the town's day labor site and non-solicitation ordinance,
and it says that the town was right. |
| When the town developed the current approach to dealing
with the day laborers who used to gather by the dozens near
the 7-Eleven at Elden Street and Alabama Drive, it chose to
do two things: open an official site where people can solicit
work, and enact a law that prohibits people from soliciting
work in a similar fashion anywhere else in town. |
| This was an approach developed by months of research into
how other communities have dealt with the same problem and
what the legal limitations of such a plan are. Former Mayor
Michael O'Reilly, and his predecessor, Rick Thoesen, both
discussed the town's problems and options with public officials
across the nation, and federal officials here in Washington,
D.C. |
| The consensus was that a locality cannot infringe on the
right of people to assemble and to exercise free speech unless
it provides an accessible location where people can exercise
those rights. |
| Hence, the town could not pass a law outlawing people from
standing around on any street corner waiting for people to
stop by and offer them jobs unless it provided an official
day labor site and made it open to everyone. |
| A man named Stephen Thomas parked his car at the 7-Eleven
last September. He got out and walked up to some men. He negotiated
for one of them to work for him, and then the two got into
his car and drove away. Mr. Thomas received a ticket under
the town's non-solicitation ordinance. |
| Mr. Thomas contested the charge on the grounds that as long
as he wasn't a danger to traffic flow he should be allowed
to stop his car, talk to whoever he chooses and hire someone
to work for him if he so chooses. |
| Last week, Judge Lorraine Nordlund heard his argument in
General District Court and ruled that the town's ordinance
is appropriate because it serves the greater public good.
But, she said the ordinance would be clearly against the U.S.
Constitution if the town did not also have a site in town
where people could go to hire day laborers. |
| "And if it were not for the town center, I would have to
strike this ordinance," the judge said in her ruling. This
is an important ruling, because it clearly shows that the
town needs to have a day labor site open to anyone if it hopes
to have an ordinance that controls day laborers in town. |
| Since the site was approved by the Town Council, the Herndon
Official Workers' Center has been a lightning rod of controversy.
It brought international attention to Herndon as the national
debate on immigration raged on. Community groups opposed to
the day labor site formed, and many people voiced their protests
that the town's method of handling the day laborers unfairly
benefits illegal immigrants as much as legal residents. |
| When Election Day arrived, all but one Town Council member
who voted in favor of opening the day labor site was booted
off the board, and voters swept in a new mayor and Town Council
that has a different approach to dealing with the day laborers. |
| During the campaign and since being elected to office, most
of the Town Council members have made clear that they oppose
the Herndon Official Workers' Center specifically because
it does not check a person's immigration status before allowing
them to participate. Critics say this is criminal because
it violates state and federal law that prohibits people from
encouraging, supporting or aiding those who are in this country
illegally. |
| Only about a month ago, the town staff, under the micro-managing
direction of the Town Council, requested bids from companies
to operate a day labor center modeled after a temp firm, where
job applicants would be screened before being linked with
prospective employers. Nobody entered a bid to the request. |
| The Town Council has worked these past few months to develop
a day labor site that will check a person's residency status
before allowing them to participate. But the judge's ruling
last week clearly is the first indicator that the Town Council's
idea of changing the current set-up probably won't work. |
| It won't work because the ordinance will be unconstitutional
without an open day labor site. And laborers and employers
won't have any incentive to use a labor site if there is no
law prohibiting them from performing the same activity on
the sidewalk in front of their homes. |
| Throughout the debate, critics of the town's policy and
of the national immigration policy have said that they respect
the rule of law, and that illegal immigrants have broken the
law by entering this country. |
| The judge's ruling last week clearly shows that the rule
of law has always been the foremost concern of previous Town
Councils and mayors, and it was concern for the only law that
matters in this debate: the U.S. Constitution. |
