| Back
at the Starting Line |
| Well, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Two years after the town enacted its anti-solicitation ordinance
and opened an official site to control day laborers in town,
it seems both are soon to be scuttled. |
| A Fairfax County judge ruled Wednesday that the ordinance
violated free speech provisions of the U.S. Constitution and
does not provide acceptable outlets for such free speech,
the solicitation of employment, to take place in the town. |
| The town, meanwhile, has not been able to find a new operator
for the site that would check workers' legal status, and so
has started down the path of hiring workers to run the site
itself for the benefit of only legal workers. |
| The judge's ruling was clear that in order for a day labor
site to be made available in support of an anti-solicitation
ordinance, it would have to be open to all people, regardless
of nationality, to be legal. |
| Two years after the first viable solution to the town's
day laborer issue was begun, the anti-solicitation ordinance
appears to be in tatters, the Herndon Official Workers Center
is closing up, and the town is opening up a temp agency for
high school drop outs. |
| Where there was little to no taxpayer burden for Herndon
residents to operate the day labor site, now the town is opening
itself up to pay tens of thousands each year to serve workers
it deems worthy. And the judge says we can hire our laborers
anywhere we want in town. |
| Good work, everyone. How about coffee at Alabama Drive and
Elden Street tomorrow morning? |
