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Herndon labor ordinance struck down by judge
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Herdon Mayor Stephen J. DeBenedittis says the town is reviewing its legal options with regard to a decision by a Fairfax County judge declaring an anti-solicitation ordinance issued by the Herndon Town Council as unconsitutional.
Fairfax (Map, News) - A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge has struck down a Herndon law forbidding employers to solicit day laborers anywhere but at a single center, a new turn in an already complex tangle of immigration, labor and law in the small Virginia town.
Judge Leslie M. Alden overturned a district court ruling and declared the ordinance unconstitutional, the town announced Wednesday evening. A previous Town Council enacted the law and established the controversial day labor center in 2005, with the goal of preventing laborers from gathering at informal sites where officials argued they were a health risk and a nuisance.
The anti-solicitation ordinance was first challenged in 2006 by Stephen Thomas of Reston, who Herndon police arrested for hiring a worker outside a 7-Eleven on Elden Street. A district judge upheld the measure in March, based largely on the existence of the day labor center, which gave employers an laborers a place to meet. Thomas appealed soon
after.
That initial ruling is why the new Herndon Town Council, much of which was elected last year on the promise of opposing the center, was not able to completely dismantle it. Mayor Stephen J. DeBenedittis, in a statement Wednesday, said the town “is reviewing its legal options.”
“The Herndon Town Council continues in its commitment to do whatever is necessary to avoid a return to informal day labor sites on our streets and throughout our town,” he said.
The ruling represents a setback for those hoping to push illegal aliens out of Herndon by ending day labor opportunities, and a boon to day-laborer rights supporters.
“This is huge, this is another big victory,” said John Steinbach, community outreach coordinator for the Woodbridge Workers Committee. “This is right up there with Hazleton,” he added, referring to a recent federal court ruling that struck down a Pennsylvania town’s attempt to punish employers and landlords who give work or housing to illegal immigrants.
The decision comes as the Herndon council prepares to overhaul the day labor center by putting in place a new operator who will check immigration status. Town staff is now reviewing a single bid to take over the job from Reston Interfaith, which plans to end its contract next month.
Comments from Examiner Readers
8:12 PM MST on Fri., Aug. 31, 2007 re: "Herndon labor ordinance struck down by judge"
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8:29 AM MST on Thu., Aug. 30, 2007
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Examiner Reader said:
The ONLY ruling that Judge Alden could possibly arrive at was the one he gave. The ordinance as stated would prevent ANYONE from hiring any person to do any odd job in HERNDON unless they went to the day labor center to do so. You could not(for instance) hire your neighbors teenage son to mow your yard unless he went there first. I am a carpenter, but I do odd jobs as well to make some extra money as do many other people. I paint, cut grass, trim hedges, level trailers and houses, dig ditches, cut firewood, repair furniture and clean and make ready apartments. This ordinance would prevent me from doing any of these chores UNLESS I went to the day labor center first. I don't even know where it is. Some advice: Take cameras (plural) to the day labor center and document EVERYONE who hires ANYONE THERE. Don't do business with those people who hire SLAVES! they will stop coming around, and those persons who are objectionable to you will just go away for lack of work. --COMMON-TATER
129 agree | 142 disagree
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Huge News? said:
Scum attorneys like John Steinbach pray upon hard working Americans for the benefit of illegal aliens. Now all Herndon needs to do is use 287(g) and deport them!
116 agree | 130 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Please don't be discouraged Herndon citizens. How can Judge Alden declared the ordinance unconstitutional when most of these people are not legal citizens? If they are citizens, then yes, this could apply. This is not the end of this issue, so be ready to take two steps forward.
140 agree | 135 disagree
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Carson said:
Enforcing the Immigration Laws may keep some of the Revolutionaries in governing out of prison. We have set idly by and watched what has been going on. Many are boldly going where no criminals have gone before...right out there in front of everyone, aiding and abetting in front of the Main Stream Media. Here is my two-step plan. We may have to kiss the keisters of the illegal invaders, it is still a felony to aid and abet them. If some honest men and women in law enforcement, would go after the lowlifes in the government, business and the general population that have been aiding and abetting them, by the time they had enough of a handle on the job to raise their heads and look around, I don’t think many illegal aliens would still be left. We don't need any new laws to do this either. Just some honest men and women that take their oaths of office seriously! Finding them is the first step!
112 agree | 118 disagree
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